Hesitation
by MeMyselfAndTARDIS
Summary: He offers her his one and only human heart and Rose must accept that she is simply stuck with him. But the rainy city of London faces strange disappearances and the Doctor and Rose find themselves entwined in London's unsolved case. As the clock ticks amidst suspicion and anxiety, the Doctor is forced to ask himself just how far he is prepared to save the one he loves… TenTooWhump
1. One Step at a Time

**Note:** I just had to get this story outta my chest.

Canon: Post "Journey's End" in Pete's World.

Quick legal garb I wouldn't be saying if _only _I owned Doctor Who... I don't own TenToo or Rose Tyler. Or any other potential characters in future chapters of this story... *sighs* All these characters respectfully belong to the BBC. *bows*

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Chapter 1 - One Step at a Time

_"There have been reports of a motorbike crash on the a40 motorway just approaching west London. Police are reluctant to gather witnesses as they have yet to find out the cause of the collision. However, the two passengers were seen speeding in the last two junctions before crashing. Only one of the passengers has survived the crash and recovering from mild cases of concussion. Sadly the other passenger died of severe whiplash and head trauma. We have been requested not to mention the names of the victims."_

**...**

The meta-crisis Doctor leaned towards her, putting a hand on her arm as he gently whispered those three words.

_"I love you."_

**…**

They broke apart from their heated kiss as the TARDIS engines began its hullaballoo. Rose let go of the meta-crisis Doctor's blue lapels and slightly pushed him away, glaring at the fading blue box. She had the inner urge to shout _"Doctor!" _But it was as noticeable as the last glimmer of the TARDIS bulb. She felt a hand entwine in hers and looked down. It was the meta-crisis Doctor. They exchanged glances as they took their final glances at the TARDIS.

The moment the engines were heard no more and the winds whipped up by the sentient ship grew fainter until a mere breeze blew by, a deafening silence enshrouded the whole of Bad Wolf Bay. The Doctor squeezed Rose's hand bringing it to her attention that she'd never let go. She looked at him, not knowing what to say. Frankly, the Doctor didn't know what to say either.

**…**

"I've just gotten word from Pete!" Jackie yelled, flailing her mobile phone in search for better signal. "He's sendin' over a zeppelin from Bergen to pick us up! Bloody 'ell, that Doctor could have dropped us off closer to home."

No one replied, despite her attempt to lighten the mood. Rose and the Doctor, or so he was called, were standing right in front of her in the middle of Bad Wolf Bay. Rose suddenly dropped down to the sand and drew her knees towards her and let out silent sobs. The part Time Lord stared in utter horror as Jackie ran towards her daughter.

"John," Rose chocked out, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. She looked at the meta-crisis Doctor. He gazed at her, comprehending what exactly was happening. "Can I call you John?" she nervously asked, finally composing herself. It felt like a giant stab through his heart when he began to understand where Rose was getting at. "John Smith."

"And why the hell would you wanna do that?" Jackie boggled, but he raised a hand to stop the complaining mother.

"If… If you want…" he stammered. He dug his hands further in his pockets and kicked a stray pebble across the sand, trying not to show his distraught face. Rose picked herself up and glared at John and then back at her confused mum.

"I can't look at him and call him "Doctor". He's not the Doctor," she muttered under her breath to Jackie. She walked away leaving Jackie to give an apologetic smile. John stared at Rose's back, growing further and further away as she hastily climbed the various rocks where they sat there talking and taking quick glances at him.

Then his eyes burnt with unshed tears as he stared longingly at the space where the TARDIS used to be nearly five minutes ago. John felt the unmistakable shape of the rock he got given previously in his inner jacket pocket and fell into deep thought. He shivered at the cold sea breeze biting at his skin; That was new, he never shivered from the cold.

The sound of zeppelins became audible over the distance.

**…**

John gazed at the window, looking at the Norwegian scenery below him. It was totally different compared to his accustomed spot by the TARDIS console and running about trying to pilot the ship. Frankly, he liked riding on a zeppelin considering this was his first.

"I was being a jerk."

John jumped at the sudden break in silence and noticed Rose walking towards him. His shoulders tensed and she noticed his uneasiness.

"I didn't mean what I said back at the beach."

He looked down at a loss for what to say. "I… I understand if you still want to call me John," he mumbled. Rose felt a warm smile tug her lips.

"Thank you."

He looked back up at her and noticed she was crying. "Oh, I'm sorry," he breathed, taking a step towards her and holding her in an embrace. She willingly accepted the hug and instinctively wrapped her arms around his back. They stayed like that for a moment before John murmured something Rose couldn't hear. She pulled apart from him.

"Hmm?"

"What I said back at the beach," John murmured. "About spending the rest of my life with you-"

"We'll work it out one step at a time," Rose chipped in. He looked back at her with wide eyes.

"I didn't think you'd want me," he confessed.

"We promised the Doctor to live a happy life together, and we'll live a happy life together," Rose stated. She cupped his cheeks in her hands and she studied him for a moment. Everything about him was the same.

Except...

"John, I've never seen you wear that suit before," Rose suddenly said. Instantly, he looked down at his battered and worn blue suit sustained from events back in the other universe. It was then he realised Rose indeed had never seen the blue suit.

"Oh, I thought I could try out blue," he babbled. She arched a brow. "You know..." he trailed off. "I wear blue when I go to the future. Then a bit of the ol' brown for when I go to the present or past..."

Rose burst out laughing at that, making the part Time Lord frown. "You never looked like the systematic type," she chided. John, however, seemed totally oblivious of the last remark as he studied his outfit. Then a look of nervousness crossed his face.

"Why, what's wrong with blue? I mean I could change the outfit. Donna said it was _"bonkers"_. Even my inner Donna doesn't seem impressed. Maybe I should have just stuck to one colour..."

"John."

"Did you like the brown one? I thought it was a little too brown. What with the brown long coat and all. Yeah, it was a bit too brown."

"_John_."

"Is it the tie? It _is _the tie, oh I knew it was the tie," he suddenly groaned. "But it matches with the trainers."

"..."

"I mean compared to the other outfits I wore..." he winced at a memory. "Yeah, I admit the colourful coat wasn't exactly brave, but it was the 70s fashion in my defence... Oh okay, celery wasn't exactly the most fashionable thing but not a lot of men can pull off a decorative vegetable-"

"JOHN." His mouth instantly shut with an audible snap. To his surprise however, he found Rose laughing in front of him - a very rare sight seeing the kind of situation he found himself in. "Celery?" she chortled.

"Gas indicator," he corrected, only to get a very confused glance in return.

"Colourful coat?" she began.

"Oh, don't get me started," he warned.

They suddenly both burst out laughing and John saw this as a golden opportunity. "I love you," he finally let out. The laughter suddenly faded.

"I… I love you, too..." Rose mumbled. Then a smile formed on John's lips. They both gazed at each other for a very brief moment.

"Tea?" he suddenly asked.

"Tea," Rose replied with a tongue in teeth smile that made him melt.

"Well then, Dame Rose Tyler of the Powell Estate," he said, puffing up his chest and giving a salute. "Your wish is my command." Rose burst out laughing as she watched him bound towards the zeppelin kitchen.

John entered the kitchen and leaned on the counter top, letting out a winding sigh. He tried to steady his erotic breathing and scrunched the bridge of his nose. He gritted his teeth, trying to prevent that inner Donna from taking a shine and making him let out all his emotions. He steadied himself before a tear trickled upon his cheek.

_She doesn't love you. You're just a cheap imitation of him. _

John felt a lump form in his throat. His mind was a war zone between conflicting emotions and thoughts. He began reasoning with himself. Rose kissed him back at the beach, why would she kiss him? Did she just kiss him over a couple of flattering words he whispered in her ear? Is she playing the _"I love you" _act just because she made a promise to _him_? Then he realized after Rose apologized to him just two minutes ago. She hesitated when she said she loved him…

_She doesn't love you. You're just a cheap imitation of him._

**…**

Being the wife of a millionaire surely didn't pay off enough for Jackie Tyler as she slumped by the bar her husband's zeppelin had to offer. Why couldn't he send over a _faster_ mode of transport? The zeppelin just... drifts in mid air. Frankly, she doubted the zeppelin was even _moving_... She scowled as she held up her mobile phone, praying to God for an extra bar on the top of that mobile screen to appear so she'd enough signal to call that silly husband. For goodness sake, she could _cycle_ from Norway to London and get there before the zeppelin. On second thoughts...

She took a more half-hearted sip of red wine before a dreadful thought crossed her mind and she pushed the glass away. She couldn't arrive in England in front of her son all tipsy... she glanced at her watch and sighed. Four hours to go... If she remembered correctly, a plane flight from Norway to London was only three hours... Jackie sighed again. She was being pessimistic. She just got her daughter back along with the man who could potentially spend the rest of his life with her. Then her mind tore to John. Or the Doctor. Whichever name it was. Jackie had a sense of sorrow for both of them, but almost thanked the Doctor for leaving her daughter. If he loved her, he would have left her here with the man who was obviously perfect for her and he did so. But the question lies in whether Rose is fine with that... then she remembered her little conversation with Rose at Bad Wolf Bay whilst waiting for the zeppelin.

**...**

_"I don't know what to do, mum," Rose croaked, drawing her knees even closer to her body. "It's not him."_

_"Rose, he loves you," Jackie stated simply. If she had to yell at her daughter for her to get the message, she would have done it if it weren't for John being a couple of meters away from them. "If he doesn't, he wouldn't have left you in that beach to live a better life with your family and that man," she said, pointing a finger at the tall man looking distant over the shores. "He was practically born to live his life with you." Rose looked at the grief stricken man in the distance with guilt. "Do you love 'im"_

_"... yes. I don't know..." Rose muttered. Jackie looked sternly at her daughter. "I get what you're tryin' to say, but every time I look at him, I think of him... I can't spend the rest of my life looking at his face from time to time and suddenly start cryin'..."_

_Jackie sighed. "I understand too, sweetheart. You saw how me and Pete started..." Rose laughed._

_"He made you that romantic dinner and you shouted at him because apparently dad was never romantic," she chortled._

_"Yeah, you get my point," Jackie waved off with a chuckle. You're just gonna have to work things out with him one step at a time. It will definitely work. You two I mean." Rose looked intently at her mother._

_"Yeah?"_

_"Yeah," Jackie confirmed. "You two were practically made for each other. I haven't seen you two all those times, but every time you came over to visit, you two were just bogglin' at each other." Rose blushed at that._

_"Yeah, thanks for the info, mum," she tried to bat off._

_"Promise me one thing?" Jackie asked. Rose nodded and gestured for her mum to continue. "Don't do anythin' stupid. If things somehow don't turn up good between you two, don't shun 'im." she said, gesturing at John who was beginning to approach them. "The least he deserves is to be treated like a close friend yeah?"_

_"Yeah..." _

**...**

From what Jackie had already seen and heard the few hours that had passed back at Bad Wolf Bay, she could already tell they didn't have it good for each other. She stole another glance at her watch and groaned. A mere four minutes had passed since she last checked... she hoped to God the journey won't appear to be longer after the awkwardness between her daughter and John.

Jackie pushed herself from the bar and smiled at the bartender before heading into the lobby. What she never thought she'd see was John sat on a passenger seat by the window with Rose almost curled up on him, both sleeping. Both clinging onto each other with peaceful expressions on their faces. It had been a long time since she saw her daughter sleep so soundly. Jackie smiled at the much longing sight before turning back in the direction to the bar. This needed celebrating.

**...**

Rose offered to let John stay in her apartment in North London. He willingly and thankfully accepted her offer on the condition that he slept on the sofa. Rose gave a wry smile as she put down her keys.

"Like I said, we'll work it out a step at a time," she murmured. Never in her life would she have expected to return with the man who was _like_ him, let alone return to the parallel universe. She prepared for the Doctor, not John… but she made a promise. John nodded before unbuttoning his jacket and shrugging it off. He paced around the room, totally unsure what to do. He really wasn't up for the domestic life... He slumped on the sofa looking distant when Rose came back into the living room with a bowl of popcorn. John looked up at her.

"One step at a time," he grinned.

"Yeah," she giggled, sitting on the sofa and shuffling near him before stretching out for the TV remote. He took this as an opportunity to put his arms around her and he did so. She explored some channels before settling for _Friends_ and proceeded with a mouthful of popcorn. John instinctively muzzled her hair and Rose jolted slightly.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"No, it's okay," she quickly responded, not looking at him. He sighed before reaching around her form and taking a handful of popcorn from the bowl she hugged tightly. He had to do something, just _something_. _Anything..._ Nothing over the top he thought. The hair muzzling went too far - he was lucky Rose didn't flip out at that. But all he could do was think about the years he could have spent wooing a girl instead of making the sonic screwdriver... A brief silence fell between the two as they both stared at the TV for the next ten painfully long minutes. "The popcorn's finished." Rose suddenly said. The Doctor blinked and peered into the now empty bowl.

"Oh…"

Then Rose sighed. "This isn't working out," she muttered.

"Yeah, we'll be needing more than just one bowl of popcorn," John murmured. Rose burst out laughing.

"It's not what I was getting at, but yeah…"

"Oh…"

Rose began to get slightly irritated. "Stop saying _"oh"_, he's never lost for words."

"_"He"_?!" John echoed, feeling like his heart just got ripped out of his chest and rolled in shards of glass. Rose saw his hurt expression and quickly cupped his face in her hands.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she murmured.

"Yeah, I understand…" he trailed off.

"I promise we'll get through this." Rose began after another awkward silence.

"Yeah…" John gazed at her for what felt like the hundredth time in the last half hour. "What if… What if we don't?" Rose stared hard into John's eyes.

"Tha's not gonna happen, yeah?" she stated with steel in her voice. He nodded, feeling slightly reassured. Then to his utter surprise, Rose hesitated before giving him a kiss on the cheek. She smiled and poked his chest. "We're gonna need four bowls of popcorn."


	2. Making a Move

**Note: **Oh, for those who started following this story since the beginning, it's best if you re read Chapter 1 as I made a bunch alterations to it. It felt... incomplete(?) and thanks to my fussy nature, I couldn't simply leave that chapter there...

_Blimey_, I've never written a chapter that's nearly 6k... I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry.

* * *

Chapter 2 - Making a Move

_Rose hesitated and placed a hand on his chest. She gazed at him after feeling the heartbeat of his lonely heart._

_"Oh, and don't forget this. This universe is in need of defending." The Doctor tossed the object to his Meta-Crisis self. He caught the object and glanced at it. It looked more like a lump of rock to him and he gave a questioning look at the real Doctor. "Chunk of TARDIS. Grow your own," he concluded._

_"That takes thousands of years…" the Meta-Crisis Doctor objected. The Doctor hesitated, but insisted on reasoning with his clone. _

_"No because-"_

_"If you shatter fry the plasmid shell," Donna interrupted. "And modified the dimensional stabilizer to a fold back harmonic of 36.3, you… accelerate the growth path by 59." The two Doctors and Rose stared at the ginger companion in awe. That's right… She had the mind of a Time Lord._

_"We never thought of that!" the Doctors said in unison. Donna grinned in realization._

_"I'm brilliant!" she exclaimed. The Meta-Crisis Doctor beamed at her whilst his real version gazed at him and Rose._

_"The Doctor," he said. "In the TARDIS with Rose Tyler."_

**…**

John's eyes flashed open as he shook his head to reality. He looked around and found himself on the sofa, spooning Rose in his arms, her back pressed against his chest. Her body felt warm and he closed his eyes in relief as he delved in the pleasure of her presence. Talk about one step at a time… Then he yawned and blinked.

He had that dream again. The same one from when he decided to take a quick nap on the zeppelin ride to London.

On second thoughts, he'd rather call it a flashback.

Did it really happen a few hours ago? Scrap that, is all this _still _real? He felt the beat of his single and lonely heart – solid proof that he's still that meta-crisis clone of the Doctor. Honestly, it felt like a cursed seal of approval that he was just a mere imitation of _him_. He estimated it to be around 3am and scowled. Not only did he wake up unnecessarily during the middle of the night but he slept for a mere three hours. Cautiously, he raised his arm, pulled it away from Rose's body and gently eased his other arm out from under her. She groaned and he froze, but she simply rolled to her other side facing him. He studied his Rose for a moment. A strand of blonde hair brushed her glowing, porcelain-like skin. Her hair was a slight mess, but it was perfectly understandable. Whose hair doesn't get messed up during sleep? Yet he thought the sight looked cute. Frankly, John saw it as the picture of perfection. Had she smiled, the world would sigh with contentment. Had she laughed, the world would laugh with her, and God forbid, if she ever wept, the whole world would want to comfort her.

John blinked. He didn't deserve her. The Doctor just dumped him with her so he can wander off in that other stupid universe. He immediately and expertly eased his other arm out from under Rose's body without ever so much as waking her and peeled himself out of the sofa. John silently tiptoed towards the window, relying on the light the moon casted through the window shutters to guide where he was moving and avoid spilt bowls of popcorn. He poked his finger through the opening of the shutters and peered outside through the glass doors of the patio. It was still raining in the middle of the night. _Typical London…_

He continued gazing out the window and fell into a deep hole of thought. His mind decided to examine himself from a physical point of view: Although he had the genes of a Time Lord, the human qualities seemed more dominant in him. Unlike his original self, he can no longer sense any fixed points in time, temporal fluctuations and the general "timey wimey" sorts. This made the Doctor feel much lesser than he felt, but the thought of not knowing any possible futures of this universe excited him. He can do _anything _without knowing what's going to happen and any precaution was totally unknown to him. This was something that constricted most of his original self's actions in the other universe. He's in a whole different universe and with no idea of what possible futures or histories it held; surely anyone wouldn't resist the temptation to poke around.

He held his breath... Two minutes, fifty-five seconds and twenty eight milliseconds. He can hold his breathe for a puny two minutes, fifty-five seconds and twenty eight milliseconds before possibly fainting… that was pretty average. For a human. To his utter annoyance, he had no respiratory bypass system, considering the amount of times it had saved his life. But the one giant and most obvious change was his single heart. Its beats were rather steady and less… frantic than having two hearts. But it certainly didn't forgive the fact that if this particular heart failed on him unlike the numerous times in his full Time Lord self, he was a goner… He scowled. How did these humans cope?! John almost felt utterly stripped. It was then he began to appreciate this race even more.

He frowned as he realized how open to emotions he was thanks to the inner Donna in him. Right about now, he felt like crying and it annoyed him. Pile that with the hormones and he was practically an emotional turmoil judging from the situation he had found himself annoyingly stuck in. His neck suddenly craned to Rose as she began to murmur in her sleep. _Bad dreams, eh? _John instinctively darted back to the sofa where he clambered back in and hugged Rose, hoping it was enough to comfort her. It was to his sheer and utter horror did he make out what she was saying in her sleep and he let loose the grey clouds in his mind.

He silently cried.

**…**

They fell asleep on the sofa. Rose was the first to wake up being spooned by John. His arms wrapped around her waist and his head rested by her shoulders. His shock of brown hair tickled her nose and she yawned. A great big yawn. She studied his sleeping face. It was beautiful and yet he looked so peaceful. It suddenly struck her that she had never seen the Doctor in such a peaceful state. He never slept… She wriggled her hand free and poked John's cheek. He merely stirred and subconsciously hugged her harder. She rolled her eyes and lamely reached out across to the coffee table and glanced at her phone when she read nineteen missed calls from here dad. She sighed and proceeded to read a text from her dad.

_BEEN CALLING YOU. COME TO TORCHWOOD WHEN YOU'RE READY. BRING JOHN._

She noticed the message was sent at 7am. Then she read the time on the little screen. It was 1pm.

"Oh, crap!" she yelled. John, in turn, yelped at her sudden outburst and flopped off the sofa in an unceremonious heap. He blinked countless times before focusing on Rose's figure darting across the living and into the bedroom where she came back out and threw a pillow at him. "Oi, sleepyhead. Wake up." He groaned after having only a few hours of sleep since waking up in the middle of the night to Rose murmuring in her sleep. It hurt him some more the moment he realized she had been dreaming about the Doctor... what she'd been saying in here sleep didn't need saying... He shook his head from thought.

"Rose?"

There was the sound of clattering in the bathroom followed by the sound of running water. "We're expected at Torchwood," Rose managed to let out. It was obvious she was brushing her teeth.

"What for?" he boggled, picking himself up and brushing his suit.

"Dunno… get changed."

John arched a brow and glanced down at the only clothes he had already being worn. It would be a mistake to assume he customarily slept in his accustomed outfit. "Okay," he lamely replied.

**…**

John sat opposite the Torchwood operative who continued typing his details on her computer. He went through the process of what he'd like to call "registering himself to the "other universe"." And as for the "other universe", he liked the name of "Pete's World", just because it sounded right. And amusing. Frankly, the John doubted anyone would care… The room was awfully quiet and he shuffled in his seat not liking how restrained he felt, even though he _wasn't_ restrained. He looked at the operative and frowned with envy at her long ginger hair tied in a bun. It struck him that he forgot that woman's name. Abigail? No, it had more syllables than that. Amber? No, the ratio of vowels to consonants doesn't seem right. Angela? John scrunched his face in deep concentration. He was sure he read it on her door plaque. How could he forget? Humans _do _have shorter than usual memory spans… Then resorted to fiddling with his tie before the operative looked back at him to ask the usual series of questions.

"Name?" she asked in a Scottish accent.

"Amelia!" he blurted. The operative frowned at him and shook her head.

"No, _your _name. Not mine." John shrunk in his chair. "And for the record, Amelia is my long name, call me Amy. Amy Pond."

"Amelia Pond," he echoed and smiled. "I like that, it sounds like something out of a fairy tale. Why did you change it?" he wondered. Amy rolled her eyes.

"Enough about my name, what about _yours?_" She grinned, as the question seemed to distract him.

"My real name?"

Amy sat there completely bewildered. "Yes, your real name."

"The Doctor," he replied with a tone of seriousness - maybe a bit too serious to be sane. Amy frowned again.

"Doctor who?"

"Exactly," he nodded, but she sighed impatiently.

"Don't you have a full name?"

"Oh!" he realized. "John Smith."

Amy blinked.

"You're just making that up aren't you?"

"Well, I could have added something like "Roberts" in the middle," he trailed off. Amy sighed and typed _"John Smith"_.

"Age?"

"Nine hundred and six."

"…" Amy stared at the man from behind her computer and typed _"thirty-six"_.

"Your occupation?" John tilted his seat back and hummed in thought.

Something struck his mind and he bounded from his seat. Amy brought herself back almost instantly at the sudden action. "I can work for you!" he exclaimed, pointing at her. Amy raised a brow and typed _"freelance"_. "No, seriously," he insisted. "With my vast knowledge of alien technology, I can help out with Torchwood."

"Yes, I'll make sure Pete gets a hold of that proposal," Amy waved off. She finished typing a few more details and turned back to the Doctor. "Your documents and passports will be ready by tomorrow the latest. As for your gun license-"

"No, I won't be needing that," he interrupted.

"But it's Torchwood policy," Amy stated. "Every associate of Torchwood requires any form of weapon for protection."

"Trust me. I'm fine," he reassured. "Besides, I've got this," he added, tapping his head. Amy just rolled her eyes and continued typing the final details onto the system. Finally, she nodded at him and stood up from her chair. The Doctor did so too and shook the operative's hand. "Nice to meet you, _Amelia Pond,_" he teased. She only rolled her eyes for the second time and escorted him out of the room.

**…**

"Rose?"

Rose's head perked up from her desk as she followed the awfully familiar voice. "Mum?" she boggled. "What are you doin' here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing, sweetheart," Jackie began, strolling into Rose's office. "Aren't you supposed to be bondin' with _you know who_?" Rose rolled her eyes at that and to her disappointment; Jackie knew she had it bad for John.

"He's upstairs doin' some paperwork. Dad needs to give him an easy transition into this universe," Rose sighed.

"Do you love 'im?" Jackie asked, clearly ignorant of how Rose might have reacted. Rose was quiet, not looking up from her paperwork.

"…Yes."

Jackie stared at her daughter busying herself with some files. "Do you love 'im?" she repeated.

"YES," she exclaimed, slamming a book on top of her work. A deafening silence enveloped the two for a brief moment.

"You still love _him_, don't you?" Rose saw where her mum was getting at and buried her head in her hands.

"… Yes."

A new wave of sadness filled Jackie's heart for Rose and for John. "C'mon," she said, trying to change the subject. "Let's 'ave lunch, I'm _starving_."

"I'll catch up with you, I just need to sort out some documents…" Rose trailed off. Jackie groaned.

"You're not even supposed to be workin'! It's your day off!" she complained and sauntered off. Then she called out from the hallway outside Rose's office. "I won't be in the canteen for long since I have to pick up Tony from school."

Rose watched as her mother entered the elevator. She wiped her eyes and composed herself before hurrying out of her office.

As she entered the hallway, she spotted a brown spiky haired man in a blue pinstripe suit hopping on one leg in the middle of the corridor. Rose blinked.

"John?"

He looked up at her and gave his infectious grins, almost losing his balance and nearly toppling over if it wasn't for a nearby wall he leaned on. Rose couldn't help but laugh at the sight. "I just finished registering my details for my documents, I guess it's safe to say I legally exist on your universe now," he chuckled. They both smiled at each other (a rare sight for them both) and Rose poked him on the chest.

"You hungry?"

"_Famished!_" he exclaimed, clutching his stomach. A little part of her died inside. He was never hungry… Rose arched a brow and studied him to try cover up her dreadful thoughts.

"You've never been hungry before," she said, poking his stomach. They entered the elevator as Rose pressed the "ground floor" button. "The only things I ever see you eat back then were chips, some cupcakes back in the 1953 Coronation and some toast or cereals for breakfast in the TARDIS. I don't understand how you can still run on little food." John hummed.

"I got it from Donna," he replied. "And when I was a Time Lord, I didn't need much food to keep me going because Time Lords have two stomachs. The other stomach preserves food for energy. They can easily survive without food and water for days. Except we get delirious after forty days… you wouldn't like a delirious Time Lord, Rose." Rose looked completely taken aback and all John could do was to give a wry smile. "I've got the physiology of a human thanks to Donna, so yeah…"

"Time Lords are weird," Rose giggled.

"_Oi!_" he got back. "I'm technically part Time Lord." There was a brief silence in the elevator before Rose looked back at John with a grin. They both chuckled. "Oh and here's the best bit: Time Lords can't get drunk," he said rather smugly.

"No…" Rose breathed.

"Yup," he replied, popping the "p". I once won a…" he trailed off turning red at the next thing he was about to say. "No, don't worry…"

"No, tell me!" Rose practically demanded. He scratched the back of his head.

"I won a pair of red knickers that Audrey Hepburn owned in a drinking bet against Andrea Dotti in 1973. First one to get drunk loses. For every shot of vodka he drank, I had two…" he trailed off, looking up. "I had twenty four shots and still survived," he murmured, looking back at Rose with a wary smile.

"You had a drinking contest over Audrey Hepburn's knickers," Rose slowly explained.

"Yup."

"Against Audrey Hepburn's husband."

"Yup."

"And you had two shots of vodka for every shot he took."

"Yup."

"You had twenty four shots… Oh my God, Andrea Dotti had _twelve_ shots?!"

"Explains why he had some crude affairs…" John muttered. "Poor Audrey. The kind of things you humans do when you're drunk." Rose stared at him. That's it. She was a million percent done.

"So what Time Lord qualities do you possess if you got the human physiology?" she asked, trying to change the topic. The Doctor scrunched his face in concentration, trying to find an easy way of explaining the topic to Rose.

"For starters and the most obvious, I have my brains. I'm ten times more clever than a normal human being," he grinned. Rose rolled her eyes.

"Well, you still have your big egoistic head," she teased before gesturing for him to continue.

"Oh, and I still have my telepathic abilities thanks to my superior brain."

"Is there anything _not _including your brain?" Rose asked seriously and he laughed. Then remembered something else.

"Now that I'm not fully Time Lord," he continued. "I don't have what I'd like to call the "sixth sense"."

"You had six senses?" Rose asked in disbelief.

"Yup," he replied, popping the 'p'. "Time Lords can sense temporal… stuff. Like whether something of someone is a fixed point in time, or whether there's a paradox occurring, any timey wimey stuff, all the sorts." He looked at Rose. "I can't sense that. So I don't know this universe's past, present and even future. I guess that's a good thing, since we can finally do whatever we like." Rose smiled at that. "Except the stuff that involves wiping out species and all…" he trailed off. "It's just that… Oh, it's nothing."

"What?"

He produced a lump of rock with an orange tinge to it. There was no mistake that was the TARDIS coral the Doctor passed onto John. "I've been wondering about growing our own TARDIS." He pursed his lips, preparing himself for what Rose had to say. As she opened her mouth, he hesitated and proceeded to babble, completely scared she would get angry. "I-I completely understand if you disagree because we only have one life to live and going around time and space is very, very dangerous. It's just that there's is a whole new universe to explore…" To his surprise, she didn't do the usual sigh and long lecture, but smiled.

"Yeah…" she trailed off. "Yeah, I think it's brilliant."

"…" John blinked. "Really?" Rose gave him that tongue in teeth smile that made him swoon.

"I might get bored," she simply replied, "staying on this planet for the rest of our lives and all…"

John beamed like a loon. He looked exactly like the Doctor when something good was going to happen. The moment John turned his back to press the "Ground floor" button; she let out a winding sigh. If she was going to live a happy life with him, she had to at least make a move. She looked up as he made an uneasy noise. "Wha's wrong?"

"There's a slight problem. Just a tiny teensy weensy problem…" he murmured, holding up his thumb and index finger close to one another to indicate how apparently small the problem was.

"What?"

"Shatter frying the plasmid shell is the most doable bit…" he trailed off. "But modifying the dimensional stabilizer to a fold back harmonic of 36.3 isn't."

"Oh…" Rose mumbled. "It's okay, we can find a way to modify the dimensional thing to a fold back harmony of 36.3."

"Modify the dimensional stabilizer to a fold back harmonic of 36.3," he corrected with a smirk. His tone suddenly changed to that of disappointment. "But it requires a _lot _of energy… the technology here on Earth isn't advanced enough to produce or induce such amounts of energy, let alone handle it." Rose looked at the John's face with a raised brow. "What's with the look?"

"Who said we could just use Earth technology?" she grinned.

"What?" he boggled.

"My dad's the head of _Torchwood_, silly," she giggled. "We'll find some sorta alien thing."

"Oh, I forgot! This new universe gives me a totally different perspective to things," John laughed. "Oh, you're brilliant, Rose Tyler."

"Tha's what he always says," she subconsciously blurted out. It took a moment for Rose to realize what she'd said and she slapped her hand to her mouth. "I'm so sorry." John forced a smile.

"I understand…"

The elevator pinged and the doors parted, revealing Torchwood's main foyer. It was a _very _brave move, but Rose offered a tentative hand. John looked at it wide eyed wondering what to do. It eventually struck him that _she _was offering her hand. Not him. He gratefully, but more nervously took her hand. Hand in hand, the two sauntered out of the elevator and headed for the cafeteria. A few heads turned to them, making John a little uneasy. Rose saw this and squeezed his hand.

"Ignore them," she whispered. "They've heard so many good things about you back when you were in the other universe. You're like their idol." John smiled at that. They approached the noisy cafeteria heaving with enthusiastic Torchwood operatives. The smell of fish and chips wafted in Rose's face and she smiled. John noticed this and grinned. He suddenly made an uneasy hum and nudged Rose's shoulder and pointed towards Rose's father. Within one of the tables, the unmistakable voice of Pete Tyler could be heard and frankly, he was calling for John and Rose the minute he spotted them. Rose held back and let go of his hand.

"You think you could encourage him to help with our "Grow your own TARDIS" scheme?" he wondered, studying her dad's almost frantic waves to get their attention.

"What? Why me? Isn't this too sudden? Won't he get all _"overprotective father" _on me?"

"I'll get our food, you can go to your dad," he babbled, pushing Rose towards the direction towards her father.

"But-but," she complained. "You don't even know what food I'm having!"

"Fish and chips. You also want an extra portion of chips with salt and vinegar and ketchup splattered all over it but not too much that all the cod is covered in it," he muttered. Rose looked at him.

"How did you know?"

"I read your mind, and that's how you always get your fish and chips," he simply replied and hurried off to the counter. Rose stopped for a brief moment and realized he _can _read her mind thanks to his part Time Lord brain. Or did he know her so well? She sighed and edged nearer her dad who was shooing other Torchwood staff to leave his table. John just wanted her to face Pete herself. She'll get him for that.

"Nineteen missed calls," her father said seriously. Rose rolled her eyes.

"Yeah sorry…"

"So how's John?" he wondered. "Biscuit?" he asked, gesturing to a pile of biscuits on his tray. She waved it off with thanks before looking intently at the part Time Lord talking happily with another Torchwood operative whilst pointing at various fruit by the counter.

"Yeah, he's fine."

"Oh, Jackie was here a few minutes ago before she went to collect Tony from school. She sent all her hugs and kisses to you and John."

Rose frowned. "Yeah tell her _"thanks"_."

Pete gazed at his daughter and cleared his throat. "I um… I heard about him."

"Yes you did," Rose began with an air of annoyance.

As if on cue, John approached the two with trays of food on both hands. He looked at Rose with an expression that said, _"did you tell him?" _Rose couldn't help but smirk. "John, I think there was something you wanted to tell my dad?" He gaped at her and if Rose had a camera on her right now, she would have taken a picture of his priceless facial expression.

"Yeah…" he trailed off, staring at Rose with an expression that said _"I'm gonna get you for that." _He laid the food trays on the table as he settles for a seat next to Rose so he was facing directly opposite Pete. Then he looked back at Rose. "Sorry, they ran out of ketchup, but thankfully, you have me and my dimensionally transcendental pockets," he babbled to Rose.

"What?"

In reply to her question, he produced a bottle of ketchup from his inner jacket pocket making Rose laugh. Pete arched a brow.

"You think Torchwood can get hold of that Time Lord science?" he asked. John shook his head, proceeding to open a packet of crisps.

"Transdimensional engineering was created by my people. Technology here on Earth or even alien technology contained in Torchwood isn't complex enough to even harness one dimension… Even after trying, Earth can't even harness the power to vortex travel against the natural flow of the fourth dimension. Don't get me wrong, you humans have a _brilliant _imagination, I'd give you that." Pete gaped at that.

"I don't know what you said, but I'll take your word on that," he chuckled. John raised a brow and ran his hands through his hair making it stand on end. Rose giggled at that - she always thought his hair defied gravity itself. She took the bottle of ketchup from the table and poured its contents all over her chips.

"Yeah, speaking of dimensionally transcending," she said more loudly. John saw where she was going and rolled his eyes.

"Dimensionally transcendental," he corrected before looking at Pete. "We're planning on growing our own TARDIS." Pete gaped at that and then looked at Rose.

"Don't you think that after growing your TARDIS, you're putting yourself in a little more danger travelling back in time and space?" Rose sighed at that.

"I understand you're a little worried-" Rose got cut off the minute she noticed Pete's serious look and she rolled her eyes. "Okay, _really _worried, but me and John can't exactly stay on this planet and do… normal stuff for the rest of our lives."

"_"The rest of our lives"_," Pete echoed. "You make it sound pretty intimate," he chuckled. Rose, however, returned the remark with a serious look. John noticed this and felt a little hurt.

"I know this is a big request from me and your daughter," he said. "But could I kindly ask for your help in growing our TARDIS?" Pete sighed.

"I'm still unsure that I want to let you grow a TARDIS…" Rose groaned at that and pleaded her dad.

"I'm _not _having a boring life on Earth," she pouted, stuffing a chip in her mouth. But Pete stubbornly shook his head.

"I'm not letting you in harm's way," he exclaimed, leaning closer to his daughter. "I'm your father, Rose. It's my role to protect you."

"Hmm… he's stubborn. You got it from him," John mumbled under his breath to Rose. She rolled her eyes as John looked back at Pete. "Pete, if I can have my say in this, if-" John stopped and corrected himself. "_When_ we grow our TARDIS, I'll promise to protect your daughter. And that's a promise I'll never break," he explained slowly. He then took a bite out of his chicken wrap and took a sip of tea, eyeing Rose's dad. "And I never break promises," he said over a mouthful of food. Pete gazed at the two stubborn and defiant faces before him and sighed.

"I can't really let you two down, can't I?" Pete mumbled. And with that, Rose squealed with happiness and dived to her father in a hug causing a few Torchwood staff around them to look at their boss in amusement. John smiled at the sight and took another bite from his wrap. Rose let go of her father, grinning from ear to ear as Pete coughed and straightened his tie. "I'll see what we can find in Torchwood, Doctor," he said. "Just tell us what you need and we'll get to work straight away."

"Actually, do you by any chance know of a way to produce a lot of energy? And when I say a lot of energy, I mean a _lot_." John emphasized the last part by stretching out his arms, his right hand still holding his wrap.

"What kind of _"a lot"_?" Pete frowned, already feeling uneasy about the idea.

"3800000000000000000000000000 Joules," he replied almost instantly.

"…" Pete blinked. "That's the amount of energy the _sun _produces. How the hell are we supposed to do that?!" he practically yelled out of surprise. John raised his hands in surrender.

"I know, I know!" He exclaimed in mock exasperation. "I just thought that you might have some sort of energy amplifier stacked around in your base. We could probably use that…" Pete huffed.

"As a matter of fact, we found an energy amplifier on a cyber ship back during the Cyber Invasion," he stated. "But it only triplicates its energy input – it won't give out enough energy, besides, what do you even need the energy for?"

"Modifying the dimensional stabilizer to a fold back harm-"

"Okay, okay," Pete interrupted, already not getting John's techno-babble. "All I'm saying is that we need to find something that can produce enough energy to match the sun's when tripled," Pete reviewed. "How are we gonna find that?" John shrugged.

"We'll find something… eventually," he concluded. Pete noticed Rose's anxious face and sighed.

"We'll see what we can do," Rose's dad finally let out. "After all that, I can't exactly let you down now..." he huffed.

"Thank you," John said with sincere gratitude. Pete simply nodded but turned to the sudden ringing of his mobile phone on the table. At once, he answered it.

"Pete Tyler," he answered. "… Yes, wait actually, I'm a little… _What_?! … You're kidding me… No… Yes, okay." He hung up and gave a winding sigh.

"What's wrong?" John asked.

"There are reports of something "falling from the sky" and my crew on duty got to the source of it all," Pete grumbled. "Jake insisted that I come and check it out."

"Jake? Jake Simmonds?" John asked rather excitedly, clearly oblivious to what Pete was getting at. "I haven't seen him in a long time! How is he?"

"Yeah, he's fine," Pete muttered. "But I was scheduled to visit the labs and see how the guys in charge of the alien technology are doing. I heard the AT department aren't doing so well so I need to assess them…"

"AT?" John wondered.

"Stands for Alien Tech," Pete answered. He dropped his head to his hands and scrubbed his face. "Ever since the AT department in Torchwood have gone downhill almost a year ago, my job has been too hectic."

"Why, what's happening with the AT department?"

"They haven't been doing their jobs properly. It's not that they're terrible, they can't exactly determine what certain bits of alien tech. We constantly find more and more alien stuff. Blimey, John you ask too much questions," Pete exclaimed.

"Why don't you let John help?" Rose chipped in. Both men looked at her. "I mean he's good with alien stuff." John's eyes glinted.

"She has a point," he said. "I _do _know a thing or two about alien technology," he insisted. Pete smiled at that.

"In that case, you're hired. I want you to start right away…" Pete got up from the dining table and waved back at them and hurried out of the cafeteria. John beamed at Rose.

"Oh, you _brilliant_ pink and yellow woman!" He let out, grabbing her in an embrace.

"Pink and yellow?" Rose laughed. "Okay." Honestly, she liked the sound of that. They finally broke apart. "I thought I'd use my initiative - take use of you and your _"superior brain"_," she teased. John grinned and finished the last bite of his wrap.

"It's brilliant because we're both working in Torchwood." Rose gave him that tongue in teeth smile and he looked down with a blushing face. "Reckon I'll get my own office?"

"If you work hard enough," Rose giggled as she ate a mouthful of chips. The doctor hummed. He looked down at his banana and then over at her. "What?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing..." Rose sighed at that.

"What is it?" she persisted.

"It's just that…" he resisted the urge to say it. Those four words he'd been meaning to ask. No, it wasn't the right time… He went for something else. "I just realized I only have one suit and I'm wearing it," he thought out loud. "I can't live in a new universe with one suit!" Rose gaped at him.

"You're right…"

"I'm gonna have to head out and buy some new clothes…" he murmured.

"I'm coming with you," Rose stated.

"Oh, Rose you don't have to if you're going to be busy…" he insisted, tugging at his ear. "Besides, your father just made me a Torchwood operative two minutes, thirty three seconds and fifty-two milliseconds ago and he already wants me to start my shift..."

"Blimey, you're timing's uncanny," she breathed. "No, don't even start," she warned as she sensed another egotistic rant when he began to point at his head. "I'm not staying in the apartment doin' nothing and you've got no money which I happen to have, so I'm going with you to look for clothes." She shoved him lightly. John was silent for a brief moment before he got the bigger picture.

"Oh…" Then he laughed at her. "What?" she asked. He calmed down and looked at her.

"I've existed for one day in this universe and look at what I've already achieved," he exclaimed over a mouthful of crisps. "Future transport, a fake identity, a job and I'm getting a new outfit."


	3. Letting it All Out

**Note: ***Sees last update date* haha... whoops.

These final exams are nearly coming to an end... Two more to go... just... two more...

Oh, and there's a slight chance I may have changed the story summary (whoops. Again.)

* * *

Chapter 3 – Letting it All Out

When John said he wanted to get some new outfits after work, Rose didn't expect to find herself in a suit store in the high street at 7pm. "John," she called out, but he seemed totally oblivious in the midst of bounding from one side of the shop to the other studying different types of suits. "John, why are we here?" He looked up in the midst of examining the fabric of a black suit before perking his head up to meet Rose.

"To get new clothes," he replied indifferently, as if pointing out the obvious. "Well, it's the same place I usually get my outfits from in the other universe so it _should _have the suit I'm looking for…" Before Rose even objected, he encountered one of the shop staff. "Ah! 'allo… Adam Mitchell?" he boggled, reading his name tag and shaking his hand with extreme enthusiasm. "Nice name, Adam Mitchell," he babbled, feeling a pang of homesickness for the other universe.

"Adam Mitchel?" Rose echoed, staring at the man and back at John. "He's…" she trailed off, pointing a finger at Adam and then making hand gestures to express her lack of speech.

"Yes, Rose, his name is Adam," John muttered, discretely shaking his head, begging for her to shut up. "Sorry about her," he said nervously to Adam. "She's delusional."

"But he's…" Rose chipped in. "The brain thing," she squeaked, pointing at her forehead. "From Satellite 5!"

"I need a suit," John began quite loudly, hoping to God Rose wouldn't cause a stir…

"Well…" Adam chuckled, gesturing at the store full of suits. "You've come to the right place. What particular style are you looking for?"

"_We-ell…_" he trailed off, elongating the "well" like how _he_ always did it which made Rose die a little inside… John gestured at his current clothes. "You don't by any chance have this style? I like this style. It's brilliant! Fits snuggly to the body and you can run in it without having to worry about any loose or flappy bits for a Slitheen to hook it's claws into." John was greeted with the most confused glance from Adam.

"… yes as a matter of fact, we have that style…" he said in a very monotonous tone.

"Oh, brilliant! Just like I thought," he beamed. "It amazes me how this universe isn't so different from the other one. That means you'd have it in the sizes I want. I'd like the large size please. Y'see, Rose. This foxy body of mine is just right to fit into any large suit. I was practically made for them!" Rose couldn't but burst out laughing at a previous memory.

"…" Adam stared at this strange man. Seeing as he seemed it to be appropriate, Adam went along with it. "We have it in various colours-"

"Oh, I want a blue one," John blurted. "Urm, not a baby blue one or a navy one - _we-ll… _it's close to navy blue and I didn't mean the song _"Navy Blue" _by Diane Renay – brilliant singer she was by the way. But yeah, just a bit lighter than navy blue. Oh, just make sure it also has red pinstripes. Not bright red, more like a rusty red!" John added, only to be nudged by Rose.

"I think he knows what he's doin'," she murmured, offering poor Adam a smile of apology. "Sorry, he's delusional," she said, finally getting her back. John suddenly remembered something.

"Can I also have a brown one with light blue pinstripes?" he quickly realized. "Size large of course."

By then, Adam had already bolted into the stock room.

**…**

John ambled around the changing rooms in his new brown suit, trying to adjust to the slightly looser fit. Strange… he must have lost a bit of weight… He halted in front of a mirror and pivoted, glancing at the side view followed by spot checks. Then he hummed in approval.

"Someone's happy."

John spun on his heel and saw Rose walking into the changing room, grinning at his new appearance. "Have I lost weight, Rose?" She laughed at the question – he was skinny enough! And then faltered at his slightly serious face and studied him for a moment.

"No, I don't think so. Why, is it botherin' you?"

"No, not really," he mumbled, fiddling with his brown tie. "Sorry I'm dragging you into this…"

"Stop being so hard on yourself, John." Rose retorted. "Besides, I chose to come with you."

No one else was in the changing room besides John and Rose and he wondered whether what he was meaning to say to her was the right thing to do at this time.

_It's only four words, John. Just say it! You're part Time Lord - you can do anything._

Suddenly his confidence shattered and he simply said, "thank you." If it weren't for that inner Donna, he might have had that chance to man up and say it.

"Have you tried the other suit?" Rose began to ask.

"Yup!" he replied, popping the "p".

"You happy with the fit?" she asked, making sure she wasn't going to spend her money recklessly. John shook his head petulantly.

"This foxy body fits large suits like two complementing jigsaw puzzles," he said, before frowning. "I really shouldn't be talking like this," he mumbled, scratching the back of his head. Rose couldn't help but laugh. He was exactly like the Doctor she knew. But that same question popped up in her head for the hundredth time: does she love John for who he is, or who he's like?

"So," Rose began, trying to bring herself out of thought. "Adam Mitchell…"

"I know!" John replied, almost enthusiastic but with the same kind of worry Rose had.

"I thought he was a computer genius, why's he workin' in a _shop_?" she boggled.

"New universe," John supposed with a shrug. "Maybe some things _can _change…"

As if on cue, Adam walked in with a burgundy tie John asked for. What he didn't notice were the long gazes he was receiving from Rose and John. "Anything wrong?" he queried. Rose looked at John with an expression that said, _"I regret nothing"_ which made him worry slightly. She couldn't help but grin as she snapped her fingers, hoping for something to happen. She snapped it again to confirm her thoughts. But nothing happened and she gaped at John. They burst out laughing leaving a bewildered Adam. "Right, well I've got everything you've asked for, John. I'll be at the cashier if you need anything…" He walked out of the changing rooms hoping to God they won't be regular customers.

**…**

With a wave to Adam, Rose and John left the suit store after a few bickering over what tie design suited John. They came out of the shop where darkness had already approached the skies and the cold became even colder to a point where wearing a coat was mandatory. Anyone could tell that within the next couple of hours, they'd be greeted by rain. Frankly, it wasn't a surprise seeing as this was England. John had been the hesitant one and kept insisting that he'd eventually pay Rose back for the surprisingly unimaginable amount of zeros that covered the expenses of both suits just purchased.

"John, I'm the daughter of a millionaire. I've got lots of money," she simply stated, grabbing John by the lapels and buttoning up his suit. "Now shut up. You offered me a room in the TARDIS, taken me to places I never even thought existed and made me realize how special we humans are. No amount of money can compare to that, so buyin' your clothes is the least I can do." John forced a smile. He still wasn't convinced he should let Rose go through all this trouble just for him. He looked at the commotion around them and gave an uneasy hum.

"Looks like we're gonna have a bit of trouble getting to the car park," he murmured, indicating the groups of wild teenagers loping out of a nearby nightclub with no co ordination with their legs whatsoever and screaming a string of insults. "I'll get the car and you can wait here."

"No, I didn't say we're done," Rose began, pulling his sleeve.

"We're not?"

"We're getting you casual clothing, John," Rose declared, already pulling him to a nearby _Abercrombie and Fitch _store.

"But-but we've already gotten my casual clothing," he complained, lifting up his suits and trying to put some weight on his footing to try make it hard for Rose to drag him into the store. "Rose you don't need to buy any more-"

"John," she warned and sighed for what she was about to say. "You've gotta take advantage of that foxy body so the best thing you can do is wear some decent clothes." John looked taken aback and Rose sighed. "Pinstripes and trainers are perfect, but at least have some variation." Then he sighed.

They entered the store just as a female shop assistant approached them with a welcoming smile. "Hi! How may I help you two?" Rose glanced at John who already had that nervous look on his face. She couldn't help but laugh at the next thing she was going to say.

"My friend here," she said, nudging John. "He's… he's moved in from the Brazilian favelas..." John glared at Rose and she started to speak before he even objected. "But his luggage got stolen by some Mexican pirates from the boarder after his first stop the California before boardin' his plane. Could you help me choose clothes for his entire wardrobe?" John gaped at Rose as she gave him the most innocent smile. The shop assistant looked at the two in complete and utter bewilderment, not just because of what Rose just said, but also the fact that this man needed an _entire _wardrobe of new clothes. She never had costumers who were _that _keen on throwing their money around.

"… Oh." Well seeing as they found it appropriate, she tried to go with it, too. "I hope I don't intrude in asking, but when you say _"entire wardrobe"_, does that also mean underwear?"

"Oh yes please!" Rose replied rather enthusiastically. Maybe a bit too enthusiastically… John's face flushed red as he had that inner urge to run out of the shop. Well there's his dignity being rolled around in shards of glass… The shop assistant forced a smile.

"Well, if you would like to come with me. The men's section is this way."

**…**

John and Rose entered their apartment feeling utterly exhausted. Rose was the first to speak before collapsing on the sofa without even bothering to take her jacket off.

"So how was your first day?" She asked. John threw his new long brown coat on a nearby dining chair and slumped on the sofa next to Rose.

"Alright, I guess," he contemplated. "Didn't really do much except catalogue a few alien artifacts and clean up the explosion…"

"Explosion?!"

John gave a cynical smile and sighed. "Ted mistook a Sontaran fragmentation grenade for a Magic Eight ball…"

"Oh my God, is he alright?" she gasped, but John waved it off.

"I snatched the grenade and threw it halfway across the room before it detonated on him," he replied indifferently.

"Why didn't you sonic it or somethin'?"

He sighed at that. "It had a three second timer before it detonated and we wasted two of those seconds panicking over why it made a strange beeping noise." Rose laughed at that and John glanced at her. "Your dad thinks travelling around space and time is dangerous, why not make him work with the AT department." Rose smirked before hesitating to snuggle up to him. She nervously did so and John noticed this and instictively wrapped his arms around her. Rose fell into deep thought. She was seriously beginning to wonder whether agreeing to grow the TARDIS was in fact a good idea. Yeah, it would be just like the old days, but did she want to start a new life being constantly reminded of _him_? But if it made John happy, she'd be happy. Besides, she promised a happy life with him for the Doctor.

John looked around rose's apartment for the first time and noticed the disheveled state it was in and frowned. "When was the last time you cleaned?" Rose looked taken aback by the question and John bit his lip. "I'm sorry, was that rude?" She slowly nodded and his ears turned pink in embarrassment. "I'm sorry," he repeated lamely.

"When it was just myself, mum, dad, Mickey and Jake in this universe, I couldn't really just stand around and do nothin' when I could be findin' a way to get to you in your universe," she continued. "Hence the Dimensional Canon," she quickly added and nervously smiled. "I didn't really spend much time here. I didn't think I'd spend much time here..." John studied Rose and forced a smile of reassurance, only to see her well up and wipe her eyes with her sleeve in an attempt to prevent any tears from seeping out. He stared in sheer horror.

"I'm sorry!" he instinctively cried out, unsure why he was sorry…

"No it's not you…" Rose murmured and he let out a winding sigh. John took a brave step of asking the next thing.

"Is it _him_?" he carefully asked, trying not to prod too hard at the situation.

"Well, of course it's him!" she snapped. "I've loved him for nearly six years and I spent two years bein' thrown around universes to look for him. Then he dumps me here with a man who looks like him and every time I look at him, I'd die inside or try to excuse myself just to cry." John recoiled from her words, pursing his lips before they trembled. He cursed his human biology. Slap on the hormones and Donna's emotional behaviour and in no time, he was crying. It was Rose's turn to stare in horror. "Oh my God, I'm so, so sorry, John." She apologized repeatedly, cupping his face in her hands and wiping the tears with her thumbs. He sniffed and nodded.

"I understand…"

"You always say that," she objected. "How do you cope with me after wha's happenin'?" she joked, trying to lighten the mood. He looked at her with child-like eyes.

"Because I love you." He simply stated with a bit of a stammer. He seemed to pick up a bit more confidence he thought he never had. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I want to make you happy. If you start crying, I start crying. You're beautiful and brilliant and-and I really feel like a sappy idiot who's just practically splayed out my soul before your eyes…" he muttered, tugging at his ear – a trait John took from the doctor which surprisingly amused Rose. She studied him for a moment.

"You said you have the same thoughts as him," she said, trying to ease the awkwardness. "If you love me, that means he loves me, right?" John nodded.

"And you're wondering why he would leave you here if he loves you?" he began, seeing where Rose was trying to get at. She in turn, nodded. John hummed in thought, trying to think of an analogy or something easy to understand to explain. "You remember that night back at the café with Sarah Jane?" She gestured for him to continue. "I said you could spend the rest of your life with me, but I couldn't with yours."

"That's why you left Sarah Jane," Rose summarized. John nodded; relieved she understood what he was trying to get at.

"I think the Doctor loves you so much he left you here to live a meaningful and happy life without him because it would kill him to see you… well, die..." he murmured. That last part made Rose wince a little. "And he knows you don't like to see him upset," he quickly added. "I was just the unexpected bunch of numbers in the equation. _We-ell…_ more like the icing on the cake," he added with a weary smile, which then turned to a serious expression. "Rose, I understand if you don't want me-"

"No."

John felt another stab in his heart and nodded. "Okay."

"No, I want you." She thought out loud. "If that's what he what he's thinking, and I trust you for that, then that settles it." John gaped at her.

"You mean…"

"Yes, but like I said: One step at a time." Rose concluded. "It will take time. It's just that..." She stopped, trying to think about how to say the next thing. "I never thought I'd ever come back. I thought the moment I'd find him, we'll be off and I even said my goodbyes to everyone before jumping around universes in the dimension canon. I was never prepared to come back, let alone be stuck here with you. I mean to be with someone who looks, talks, acts, thinks and remembers like him."

"I understand," John said for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. He let out a winding sigh as Rose bore John's eyes.

"Thank you."

"Oh, don't be silly, I just cried my eyes out," he chuckled. "I don't know how you humans could cope with all these hormones."

"No, really. Thank you," she said with genuine gratitude. "I think we needed all this. I mean lettin' out our feelings and all." John looked at her for a moment.

"Yeah…"

Silence enshrouded the two as John made to fumble with the fabric on his new suit. "Have you heard from my dad?" Rose asked, breaking the silence.

"Your dad? He's probably still with Jake." He whistled. "Must be something big to call in the big cheese…"

"Yeah, dad's never been out at work for this long," Rose murmured. Worry suddenly flashed her face. "You think he's alright?" At once John looked at her.

"_Pete?_" He exclaimed, as if pointing out the obvious. "Of course he'll be fine! You Tylers are better than fine."

**…**

They fell asleep again. But this time, and to Rose's surprise, they were on the living room floor. They must have subconsciously fallen off the sofa considering it's narrow space for the both of theme. They were wearing their clothes from the day before. Honestly, it would be a mistake to assume she would customarily sleep in a pink top, black leather jacket, jeans and trainers, and John in his brown pinstripe suit, brown tie and Converse. It wasn't a particularly nice feeling to wake up to… Rose was the first one to wake up. She noticed her puffy eyes and face tingling from dry tears. She dreamt of _him_. Again. Rose blinked and found herself spooned in John's grasp. She had that sense of déjà vu. She wrinkled her nose as she felt his messy hair tickling her nose and realized his head was lying on her chest. Cautiously, she wriggled her way free and clambered from the floor, intending to shower away the sweat of the day before, but felt her stomach rumble so she trudged towards the kitchen doing her general morning routine instead. Feeling utterly groggy she let her hand hover over the tray of cutlery. Eventually, her mind became clear, as her brain began to function properly and she picked up a butter knife.

That's right, she was making toast.

She pulled the fridge door, took the tub of butter as the toaster pinged and she turned her head to the tingly smell of slightly burnt bread. She looked back at John who was lying on the carpet, his mouth open and snoring and his body splayed out like an upside down turtle in the middle of the living room. The rare sight made her silently chuckle. His hair was what caught her attention – no matter what; it was always in a state where simply flattening it down would become impossible. That was in its normal state; she came to understand what his hair was like before waking up from bed. Rose approached the toaster until a tune began playing up, piercing the blissful silence that made her jump a meter in the air.

_"I remember doing the Time Warp, drinking those moments when…"_

She halted and a look of confusion flashed her face.

_"The blackness would hit me and the void would be calling, let's do the time warp again…"_

Rose noticed a mobile phone vibrating and alive with light on the kitchen countertop and burst out laughing at the ringtone. It came to her attention that her phone wasn't TARDIS blue… was it John's? Wait, since when did he get a phone?

_"Let's do the time warp agaaaiiinnn!"_

She approached the phone and read _"Pete Tyler" _on the screen.

It was her dad.

Why is her dad calling him at this time of the day?

"Step away from the phone, Rose Tyler," the voice of John declared pointing an accusing finger at a bewildered Rose with a lop-sided grin. When did he wake up?

_"Let's do the time warp again!"_

"Nice ringtone," she quipped.

"Yes, thank you," John muttered, ears turning pink in embarrassment and going for his mobile phone.

_"It's just a jump to the left..."_

"Wait, since when did you get a mobile phone?" she boggled.

"When I was sorting out my paperwork at Torchwood," he replied indifferently. "Your father was insistent I get a mobile phone. I've never really been keen on these things," he murmured, holding the phone.

_"And then a step to the right…"_

"It's your dad," he said to Rose in a tone of surprise.

"No, it's Pete the plumber," Rose exclaimed over the still ringing phone.

"We have a plumber called "Pete"?" John boggled before noticing the look on Rose that practically shouted, _"it's sarcasm, you idiot"_. "Ah…" he breathed, drawing the phone to his ear and mumbling.

"Hello?"

_"John, come to Torchwood now." _Pete exclaimed over the phone. The Doctor gave a confused look and exchanged glances with Rose.

"Is something wrong?"

_"YES! Come to Torchwood immediately. We've found something that needs your attention..."_

* * *

**Note: **Yes, his ringtone is _The Time Warp_. Ehehe...


	4. The Old Days

**Note: **All EIGHTEEN GCSE exams are OVER and I'm still sane. *Punches the air in triumph*

Me: 1

World: 0

Maybe _now_ I can continue focusing on this project if I don't constantly get writer's block and my brain decides to co-operate with me.

* * *

Chapter 4 - The Old Days

"Eighteen hours," Pete declared. "_Eighteen hours!_" he repeated louder, flailing his arms and eventually placing them back on his hips. He walked around his desk and behind it again. Then he looked at John and Rose, who were sat uneasily behind his desk.

"Yes, we understand simple time, Pete, but could you please elaborate on what's been going on for eighteen hours?" John asked.

Rose groaned. John had such a big mouth - combine that with Donna's mannerisms… She immediately shook her head.

"Eighteen hours since I left Torchwood to investigate a crash site," he explained slowly. "And on a typical case like that, I'm not needed because my men are trained to sort that stuff out."

John and Rose shrunk in their seat as Pete began encircling them, like prey. Pete's tone seemed like he was scolding them and frankly, John and Rose felt as if they were in trouble for something they had no idea about.

"John, I think you have some explaining to do."

"I do?" John boggled. "Ohhh…"

"_"Oh"_?" Rose echoed, expecting something big from John.

"I didn't tell you about the process of growing the TARDIS…" he said the last few words a little more hesitantly.

A look of confusion flashed Pete's face.

"What?"

"I may have borrowed a few of your operatives to go into the vaults to help find some equipment and materials to built a chamber for the TARDIS coral to grow in. It's to ensure no radiation or any harmful stuff gets in or out of the TARDIS whilst we focus high concentrations of energy into it…" John trailed off, twiddling with his thumbs to try and avoid Pete's gaze. "I may have borrowed some plexiglass… and some energy capacitors, class E and non-class E cables, lead rods, twenty five liters of water and some bananas from the canteen…"

Pete frowned.

"Oh, no wonder we were short of men," Pete supposed. "Wait, bananas?"

"You can't work on an empty stomach, right?" John feebly asked with a weary smile, making Rose giggle.

"Wait, you borrowed my men for _that_?"

John blinked in realization. "… Wait, you didn't want to talk about that, didn't you?" he murmured.

To their surprise, Pete's serious face turned into a grin.

"Oh, I'm just kidding with ya!" her dad chortled but John and Rose exchanged glances. "It's _big _news!" He exclaimed.

"Is it?" the Doctor asked with mock surprise. Pete withdrew and arched a brow.

"But you're gonna have a lot of explaining to officials about the lack of men at the crash site," he said with a serious tone. But his lips tugged a grin. "Oh, you should have seen the look on your faces!" he chuckled, and then searched his pockets. "Where's my phone? I should have taken a picture of your faces." Rose and John sunk in their chairs, feeling like they've just stressed out for nothing. "You like my play acting? Or was I too cheesy? I was trying to look like an angry dad," Pete wondered.

"No, no… I should call in Steven Spielberg," John murmured. Rose couldn't help but laugh at his sarcasm. Pete clapped his hand as he sat back down on his chair.

"So back to business," He began. "At around 4am yesterday, Jake's squad had to clear up a crash site in a remote area of Carngafallt in Wales. The Cardiff Rift activity seems to be getting more active as the days go by, but what we didn't expect to come out of it was this." Pete produced a diamond pendant and watched John ogle at the object.

"That's a warp star," John breathed, taking the pendant in his hands and cautiously turning the diamond in the light.

"Isn't that the thing that Sarah Jane had that Jack threatened to use against the Daleks?" Rose wondered. "Back in the other universe?"

"Yeah…" he muttered. "Never thought I'd see this again."

"Oh, so you _do _know what it is!" Pete beamed.

"You should store that carefully," John warned. "Don't judge it by its small size. It's got enough energies in there to create a powerful explosion. You're lucky Torchwood got to this before anyone else. Omega knows what catastrophic event could happen if it fell in the wrong hands…" Pete whistled at the thought.

"You have my word on that," he reassured, then pulled out his phone. "Well, that's what I really called you in for. Thanks for your help, John."

"…" John gaped at Rose's father. "You brought me in. On a Saturday morning. To classify a piece of alien artifact." He said each sentence slowly, trying to process it in his mind out of distraught.

"Yeah, I hope I wasn't distracting anything…"

"Dad, it's okay," Rose chipped in, trying to end this so she could go back home.

"Why couldn't the AT department do it?" John complained oblivious of Rose's existence and pouting like a little child.

"Well, they're not much use if they don't know what it is…" Pete reasoned. John sighed and buried his head in his hands. Then he looked up to the pendant on the table and back at Pete with wide eyes. "What?"

"The warp star…" John thought out loud. He suddenly slapped the heels of his palms against his forehead, making Rose jump on her chair. "Oh I'm so stupid!" he yelled. "I'm _thick_! Just a body with a bloody head!" He jumped from his chair and began pacing the room, hands ruffling his hair as he jumped on the spot from time to time. Rose watched him mutter to himself. It reminded her of _him _back on the TARDIS…

"John, keep it down!" Pete hissed, flailing his arms as if it would attract John's attention. Apparently not…

"Rose, do you know what this means?" John exclaimed, grabbing Rose by the arms and pulling her out of her seat.

"No what does it mean, John?" She asked excitedly with a little hint of worry. They were practically bouncing on the spot.

"It means, Rose Tyler…" he began, letting go of her and rounding on the table to pick the warp star. He dangled the pendant in front of Rose's face. "We've found an energy source," he breathed. "Detonate the warp star, it creates a powerful explosion enough to wipe out the Earth. Triplicate the energy given out from the explosion using the energy amplifier and… well… there's enough energy to match the sun."

"That's brilliant," Rose murmured, feeling a smile tug at her lips. Rose and John gazed at each other for a moment, smiling at this new and ingenious idea.

"No, _I'm _brilliant," John corrected with an idiotic grin.

"That's _stupid_!" Pete suddenly exclaimed, tearing John from thought.

"What?" the part Time Lord boggled, feeling insulted. "Excuse me, no human could have thought of that in two seconds!" Pete sighed.

"John, I'm not letting you detonate that. You said it could wipe out the Earth."

"Duh…" John jeered, trying to point out an obvious point clearly Pete didn't see. "What's the plexiglass, energy capacitors, class E and non-class E cables, lead rods and twenty five liters of water for? I'm making a chamber not just to create space for the TARDIS coral to grow in. I'm making the process as safe as humanly possible. _We-ell…_" he trailed off. "When I say "human", I mean human with a touch of Time Lord ingenuity of course," he smirked and Rose rolled her eyes at that. "If I could modify the properties of your plexiglass to give it similar characteristics to that of Vinvocci glass, I'll be able to reduce the amount of wasted-"

"John, shut up," Pete murmured, feeling absolutely dumb after John's unfinished explanation. He scrubbed his face with his hands as Rose gave her dad a sympathetic smile.

"He's always like this, dad," Rose began. "Just smile and nod every time he breathes between sentences."

"Oi!" John looked at the Tylers with an arched brow. "So whad'ya say, Pete?" Pete sighed and glanced at his daughter. She had that defiant stare – something he'll never get past. The look of Jackie Tyler.

"Just tell me what you want to say," he murmured. And with that, Rose grinned and leaned over her father's desk to hug him.

"Thanks," she whispered in Pete's ear.

"Like I said," Pete accepted, letting go of Rose. "I can't really let you two down."

The Doctor's mobile phone suddenly rang and he peered at the text message he received and groaned.

"The AT department need me," he sighed.

"Again?" Rose groaned.

"They can't live without me," he chuckled in a very sarcastic manner, shrugging on his long brown coat. "I'll be back in a tick…" John hesitated for a moment and gave Rose a quick peck on the cheek before heading out of Pete's office.

Rose watched John hurry into an elevator, feeling slightly warm inside after his unexpected action. That was the first time he ever showed any proper affection towards her without reacting in a bad way or a way that may have affected John. It had already been two days in the universe with him and they've already made it this far… Perhaps her mum was right about one thing. Maybe it _was _working.

**…**

He stormed through the two white doors and tossed his long brown coat on a nearby lab table before edging towards his colleagues.

"Now what is so important that the matter requires to excuse me from my Saturday morning?" the Doctor announced with impatience in his voice. "Again," he added.

He noticed all five of his colleagues circled around a large metal box of alien tech – possibly shipped in during his little talk with Pete. They looked up to him with innocent smiles and he sighed, scratching the back of his head. "That's _your _job to catalogue the alien tech on a Saturday morning," he groaned.

"We're just a little wary that one of them might explode on us," Ted meekly replied, recalling a moment.

"And half of them we don't even know what they are," Ollie chipped in.

"Then why didn't you catalogue the other half?" The Doctor frowned.

"Half was just an exaggeration, sir."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and dug his hands into the large silver container that nearly reached half his height. He plucked objects out one by one and called out each of their names without having to study them. "Sycorax sword, Xylok Crystal, thermal clamps, book scanner – does what it says on the tin, a telepathy pendant, a Sontaran blaster – wouldn't wanna touch that, a copy of _The Fog_?" John boggled, picking up a metal cube and sliding a finger across one of its sides lighting up and giving a warm white glow. "What's an intergalactic book doing here?" He shook his head and continued with the alien objects in the crate. "Magna-clamps, portable prison cell, Ukkan library card, _Ukkan library card_?" He echoed with an arched brow. He held the sleek gold card that lit up at the press of a button and eventually shrugged and tossed the card to Ollie. "Null field generator, Myter headset, universal translator, a quantum transducer- no, Ted, you wouldn't wanna press those buttons!" he shouted as he lunged out at the young man who had the piece of alien tech. He took the quantum transducer and gave a wry smile, "Don't worry, it doesn't blow up." The other colleagues stared as the doctor continued sorting through the container. He certainly made their jobs a hell lot easier and thankfully, they all got along with each other.

John clapped his hands in triumph. "That's it? Please tell me that's it," he pleaded. Ted smiled and nodded and the Doctor scampered off, grabbing his coat and waving his last goodbyes to the AT department before walking down the white corridors. He checked his phone and noticed six missed calls from Rose and sighed. So much for Saturday mornings…

"Oh hello, good looking."

John came to an abrupt halt as the seemingly familiar voice caused him to perk his head up from his phone. "I'm sorry, were you…" his voice faltered as he turned around and saw a tall man with handsome features and dark brown hair standing in the middle of the hallway holding various files. He sported the black Torchwood soldier uniform, but judging from the shoulder markings on his uniform, he must be a higher up. Had Torchwood in this universe gone military since then? "_Jack?!_"

"Oh, have we met?" the man wondered in that American accent, scrunching his face in concentration. "I'm sorry, did our last encounter involve a lot of glasses of Hypervodka? Y'see, I might not have remembered. But if the answer to that question was a _"no"_…" He held up his right hand and gave that infamous charming smile. "I'm General Jack Harkness. But you can call me Jack. And _who _are you?"

_General?_ Blimey…

John frowned. "Stop it," he instinctively said. But the shock of seeing this man in another universe took over him and John just gaped at the man in front of him. He looked exactly like the Jack he knew oh so long ago, except with flattened hair that gave him the look of a rugged schoolboy.

"What?" Jack asked in, slightly taken aback and crossing his arms. Then he chuckled. "That's the first time someone has ever reacted to me in that way. You're gonna be one hard guy to get into bed."

"Stop it," John warned again and Jack raised his arms in surrender.

"Okay, okay!" he exclaimed in mock shock. "So that means you're taken by any chance?" John's face turned red and Jack couldn't help but grin. "When someone blushes, does that mean, _"yes"_?"

"Blimey, Jack!" John cried out. "You're even worse than the other you!"

"Huh?"

John shut his mouth, eyes wide and hoping to God this universe's Jack didn't get what was said. _Omega_, how can he be so stupid?!

"There are two of me?" Jack wondered. Then he laughed. "Wow, there must have been a _lot _of Hypervodka involved…"

"… Something like that…" John lied with a sigh. "So," he began, trying to change the topic. "You work in Torchwood?"

Jack arched a brow and he had the sort of face that practically screamed, _"well done, Sherlock." _

"Yeah," he replied with a smile and gestured at his black uniform. "I'm temporarily in charge of investigations here, but I actually run the Cardiff base." He shifted a bit on the spot. "This uniform is pissing me off though… it crimps my style."

"Oh, so there's a Cardiff base?" John thought out loud, totally oblivious of that last remark.

"Wow, where have you been for the last three years?" Jack laughed but John couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

"You know… out and about," he murmured. "I'm actually new here. I work at the AT department."

"Oh, _that_ department," Jack trailed off, trying to show no sort of bad judgment. Clearly everyone had it bad for the AT department… "Sorry, no offence, but my Cardiff team could tell a piece of alien technology from a Magic Eight ball," he added with a wry smile.

"Oh you heard about-"

"Yeah," Jack interrupted. "Good job by the way," he began. "With the _'throwing the Sontaran fragmentation grenade across the room' _bit." John tugged his ear as a smile nearly tugged at his lips.

"Thanks…?"

"Speaking of my team, I bet they're wondering where I am," Jack chuckled, fumbling around his pockets.

"Yeah, London's pretty far away from Cardiff…" John added.

"Actually, it wasn't just myself that started temporarily working here. My team is here in London," Jack replied indifferently, putting on an earpiece. "We're in the middle of investigating Case 132." Curiosity got the better of John.

"Why, what's happening?"

"You haven't heard? Oh, of course you haven't heard. You're new here," Jack quickly added that made John roll his eyes. "London's been facing some strange disappearances," he declared with a tone of seriousness John really didn't think existed in him, given his somewhat annoying nature. "So far, there have been three disappearances. There are no links whatsoever between the victims, except that they are women and the fact that they're found dead three days after their disappearance. Autopsies show their bodies were found at least two hours after their time of death."

"Three days?" John boggled. "That's a rather long time to kill your victims. Unless you'd want them to have a slow and painful death…" He winced at the thought. He never really liked thinking in perspective of a murderer…

"What interests me is that all their causes of deaths are the same: Drowning," Jack stated, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked up in thought.

"… That's a bit of a rubbish murderer," John blurted.

"Hey, this is a serious case," Jack warned.

"No, if you think about it…" John trailed off, furrowing his brow. "Drowning's pretty quick. And unspectacular." He added, recalling a very old memory.

"Exactly," Jack chirped. "Why would you abduct someone, then kill them three days after you kidnap them? What would you do to them before you would kill them?" John gave a nervous look, followed by a shrug to show that it seemed rather casual. Frankly, it felt awkward for a Time Lord who'd never committed the deed.

"Sex?"

Jack stared at John for a moment as a brief and awkward silence was bestowed upon them. Then he laughed making John blush in slight embarrassment.

"That's what I thought!" Jack exclaimed, as if thinking the same idea was a great achievement. "But the autopsy results show none of the victims engaged any sexual activity in the last 48 hours of their death. Heck, their bodies showed no signs of a struggle. None of them! I even got my special medic to triple check it. You should meet him by the way, he's a nice guy."

"Oh, I like a medic," John beamed, clearly forgetting their once serious conversation. "What's his name?"

"Owen Harper," Jack replied. "Averaged size, short brown hair, loves white lab coats with badges on them. You should stop by at the Torchwood ward and talk to him. Can't leave him alone with that singularity scalpel…" John's eyes widened at that last bit.

"He can use a singularity scalpel?" he asked, surprise and acknowledgement in his voice. "The alien medical device that concentrates energy on an object without damaging anything on its way. _That _singularity scalpel?" Jack looked taken aback by John's sudden outburst.

"Yeah. How do you know about a piece of alien technology no one's heard of?"

"I told you," John began with a smirk. "I work at the Alien Technology department. I know what I'm cataloguing." Jack rolled his eyes at that. "Blimey, you're a lucky general to have him on your team. Not a lot of medics can use a singularity scalpel… what species is he?"

"…" Jack stared at the man. _Species? _Seeing as it seemed rather casual, Jack simply went along with it. "Human…"

"Owen's human?"

"Yes… why, is he hiding something from me?" Jack wondered. "I made it specifically clear about the _"no secrets in Torchwood"_ thing… "

"No, no! It's just that I'm pretty sure humans don't learn how to use that kind of technology later on in your timeline… but I could be wrong. We don't know the future of this particular universe don't we? It's not like two universes can share the same future." It was then John realized what he just said that made Jack stare hard at this man with narrow eyes.

"I never got to ask," Jack murmured. "What's your name?"

"John. John Smith."

"You speak like you _do _come from the future, John Smith of the AT department," Jack laughed. John in turn, laughed very nervously.

"I'm a pretty superstitious person," he lied. "Fortune tellers intrigue me." Sometimes he wished he didn't have such a big mouth…

"Oh…" Jack murmured, pushing his holster aside to take out a vibrating phone. He looked up apologetically at John. "Duty calls," he merely said.

"I understand," John found himself saying. That should be his new catch phrase. How many times has he said that in the last two days?

**…**

It was one of England's rare sunny days and the temptation of getting out for some fresh air was all too big. As an apology for disturbing their morning, Pete offered a strictly Tylers-only afternoon out at Hyde Park - with the addition of John who had yet to meet up with them thanks to some job matters at Torchwood. Tony giggled as he pulled his older sister across the park and to the duck pond.

"Don't go too far you two!" Jackie called out to Rose in particular as she and her husband stopped in the middle of a crowd of people.

Rose smiled. Her mum always wanted to be famous in the other universe and it was nice to see her have a taste of her own medicine. Perks of being the millionaire's wife. She giggled at the thought as Tony perched beside the edge of the duck pond and stuck a hand out to touch a nearby duck.

"Where's your boyfriend?" her little brother suddenly asked after accidentally poking a duck and making it fly away.

Rose blushed, but couldn't exactly tell him the truth. _Oh, I just texted him. He's coming soon. Oh by the way, he's not my boyfriend. He's just a man who looks like the man I loved for six years. He's half Donna and half Time Lord. Yes, he's part alien. No, it's not weird I love him - well, the real him. I'm not sure if I love this particular man yet, but he's starting to grow on me. I think you should just call him my friend._

"He's comin'," she simply replied. "He just had a few stuff to sort out at Torchwood."

"Your boyfriend works at Torchwood like you?" Rose winced at the noun.

"Yes, Tony, he works in Torchwood like me," she replied as nicely as possible, trying not to let out her annoyance. "Would you do me a favour and stop callin' him my "boyfriend"? He's not my boyfriend. He has a name and it's John."

"How come you're not working with him now?" he asked, totally oblivious to what Rose had just said.

"It's my day off and so is John's. He just got called in to do some work," Rose sighed. Tony frowned.

"That's not fair," he supposed. The remark made Rose smirk. "Do you think I can work in Torchwood when I'm older?" Rose took that question by surprise.

"Yeah, sure… I guess so," she replied, not entirely sure what to say.

Tony nodded and gave a broad, childish smile that made Rose smile back. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.

"It's a hot day today," she sighed. Tony nodded and Rose stood up. "Tell you what, you stay here and I'll get us some ice cream."

Her brother nodded eagerly this time and he stretched out into the pond to touch another duck. She clambered from the ground and sauntered off towards the ice cream van parked not too far from where she was. She looked back at Tony, making sure he was fine, and then preceded her journey only to bump into John. He held three ice cream cones that nearly dropped from the slight collision.

"Whoa, steady there, pink and yellow girl!" he laughed as Rose stumbled into him.

Thanks to the sun, Rose squinted at him and she gave a wry smile.

"John?!"

He gave a lop-sided grin as he handed her an ice cream cone. "I got you the double chocolate scoop with strawberry sprinkles and a flake stick – just the way you like ice creams to be," he grinned.

"Your timing is uncanny," Rose concluded to him and he winked.

"It's my specialty." Then he pointed his head at Rose's brother by the duck pond. "I wasn't really sure on what he wanted, but judging by his spiky blonde hair, the restless behaviour and large curiosity to poke anything that moves, I reckon he'll like this double scoop of vanilla and chocolate with extra chocolate sprinkles," he stated, showing her Tony's ice cream. "I added in a flake stick as my treat."

"_"Spiky hair, restless and large curiosity to poke anything that moves…"_" Rose reiterated, licking her ice cream. "Sounds like someone I know," she teased, bumping him on the arm. "You know, for a moment, you sounded like the Doctor back then," she murmured.

John smiled at her sadly.

"Well, I technically _am _him…" he reasoned, knowing an awful lot of bickering was coming. Rose sighed.

"Please, John. Now's not the best time…" she muttered.

Tony spotted the two heading towards him and beamed at the uneaten ice cream cone John held in his hand. He dashed towards them and John grinned as the little boy who took the ice cream from him whilst Rose forced a smile after that little moment.

"Tony, that was rude of you to take your ice cream like that. Say sorry to John," Rose exclaimed, but John shook his head at the remark.

"It's fine, Rose."

But Rose's brother already murmured "thank you, Rose's boyfriend" with a mouthful of ice cream making him crack a smile. Rose blushed at that and simply dropped her head down to stare at the ground.

"Tony…" she wailed, but he was already bounding off towards the nearby kids' sand park.

"Tony, don't go into the sand park with your ice cream!" John called out just as the little boy spun around waving a nearly eaten ice cream cone. "Oh, blimey…"

"…" Rose blinked at that seemingly miraculous apparition. "He eats as quick as you…"

"Yeah…"

They approached the front of the kids' sand park and waited for Tony on a bench opposite the area in silence. Probably too silent for John's liking… "It's hard to get to grips with the fact that you are still _him_, but you're not…" Rose murmured, breaking the silence and talking as if she'd made a continuation of their brief chat not so long ago.

"Yeah, I see where you're going," John replied, not looking at Rose. "I guess it will take some time getting used to seeing this daft face whilst he's still out there, swanning off to see other worlds..."

"At least he's not alone," Rose reasoned out loud to herself. "He's finally got an equal. I mean him and Donna make a brilliant duo," she chuckled. John looked down in despair at what she just said. Some day or another, he'd eventually have tell her the truth... "So how are things on your side?" Rose asked, trying to change to a lighter topic.

"Fine, I guess," John trailed off. "You've no idea who I met today."

"Who?"

"Jack." John replied with an exasperated look.

"Oh, he's not in Cardiff?" Rose boggled. John looked at her in surprise.

"You knew he existed in this universe?" he wondered.

"Yeah, I met him once before. He was helping out with the dimensional canon. You think he's…" John shook his head instantly, knowing what she was going to ask.

"Nope," John replied. "He's hardly different compared to his other self in the other universe. Since the Satellite 5 event never occurred in this universe, I doubt he's immortal… he came over to London to investigate this case." John waved at Tony who was standing on top of a wooden pirate ship. "Something about disappearances."

"Must be big if his team were called down from Cardiff," Rose murmured.

"Yeah…" John trailed off, wondering whether he should talk to her about the details. It was then he realized he never got to tell Rose what he'd been meaning to say. Was it a suitable time to tell her? "I've nipped some time to prepare for the TARDIS growth process," John let out. He mentally cursed himself. Of course that wasn't what he wanted to tell her! Silence fell upon the two as they watched Tony play in the wooden forts.

"Soon, we'll be up there," Rose murmured following the silence between them for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last few minutes, looking up at the blue sky. John smiled at that and reached out to hold her hand. Both of them didn't speak, but allowed themselves to delve in the pleasure of the cool breeze that relaxed them from the warm sun.

"Just like old days," he mumbled, smiling a little. He didn't notice Rose looking utterly distant when he said that…


	5. Perks of Being a Millionnaire

**Note: **It's Tennant Tuesday, woo!

I'm not dead! Things have just been hectic lately and I aim to update weekly. What am I talking about? I always update weekly! I'd just like to thank everyone for the follows, favourites and reviews as they keep me going. :D

* * *

Chapter 5 - Perks of Being a Millionnaire

John greeted a few Torchwood operatives passing by along the white corridors and occasionally stopped for a brief chat. It was then he thought of stopping by Lab 10 to see how the TARDIS project was getting along. Torchwood was unusually quiet that day and, judging by the lack of people, they must be understaffed. Still, it didn't really bother John as it meant fewer distractions for him whilst he was still in the base. He approached two white sealed doors and shuffled to the security lock. With the touch of a few controls, he was in. In the middle of the enormous white room was the TARDIS coral encased in a plexiglass case. It was certainly going to grow, but at a _very_ slow rate... An awful lot of patience would be required for this and John -being an alien who can't even sit still for two seconds without making something explode or running away from an angry mob- certainly couldn't bear the wait. They needed to start the process and frankly, they were just waiting for the go ahead from Pete. The construction wouldn't have gone three times quicker if it wasn't for John's unnaturally high intelligence and determination towards the project. The thought of going domestic for a while dawned on him, and he sighed outwardly.

A few scientists came over to greet him before going back to their usual tasks of monitoring the process. John walked ahead of the TARDIS coral and gazed at the magic of it all – a giant machine loomed up ahead that took over the entire wall of the lab. It was the energy amplifier Pete mentioned. In the middle was the unmistakable shape of the warp star, glowing a vivid red, then orange, and eventually yellow all inside a Vinvocci glass case that was wired up to the mainframe. John gazed at the machine. To think any of this could happen right in front of his eyes… He was beginning to feel really charmed with his new life. Maybe he spoke too soon. Thoughts of Rose clouded his mind. How was he meant to spend his life with her if she continues letting him sleep on the sofa? But the sofa was the least of his problems… His pager suddenly blipped and he read the little device. Typical. He was needed at the AT department. And with that, he silently waved at the scientists as he left the lab.

**…**

"So you're telling me…" Amy Pond trailed off, frowning at the information displayed on her computer. "Your daughter is living with an alien from another universe, and he's both brilliant and erratic," she summarized.

Pete gave her a weary smile.

"Something like that, yeah…"

"…" Amy blinked and concluded in a rather monotonous tone. "You'll have the paperwork done by tomorrow morning."

"Thank you," Pete said with total gratitude and exited the office.

He stepped out into the hallway and found his daughter smiling and strolling towards him clutching a pile of paperwork.

"Just got Amy to make a start on a back story for John. The public have gone ballistic about this new man who came out of nowhere being seen with you last night," he announced to his daughter, however she seemed a little preoccupied with a few sheets of paper falling from her arms.

Pete approached Rose and offered to carry the pile of papers to Rose's office and she nodded in thanks as she picked up some papers. They headed towards the elevator.

"Sorry, what were you sayin' back there?" Rose asked, feeling a little embarrassed for not listening.

They entered the elevator and she pressed the tenth floor button. The doors slowly closed, but a hand emerged from the crack of the two doors and they parted again. Pete blinked as John suddenly scampered into the elevator with them and smiled broadly at the two, his eyes crinkling. He noticed their questioning glances and realized.

"Oh!" He blurted, "Ted promised me he'll look after the AT department whilst I went to go check on preparations for our TARDIS project."

Both of them nodded slowly and Pete finally spoke.

"I've just got Amy to make you a back story," Pete said. "Only Torchwood operatives know of your real story. Well, about you being the Doctor and all, but nothing about his clone..."

"Oh, okay." John shuffled on the spot in uncomfortable silence. It was weird having a back story, let alone having a limited amount of people know who he actually was.

The elevator nearly reached the floor of the AT department as John composed himself and shrugged on his white lab coat. Rose thought the look made him ten times geekier which made a smile tug at her lips. She had to admit. He looked… cute.

"Oh, Pete, I hope you didn't mind me borrowing a couple of pieces of equipment from the vaults." John quickly mentioned with an innocent smile.

Pete sighed.

"John, could you just let me know when you're gonna borrow stuff from the vaults? Pete asked, searching around his pockets. "Wait, what did you take from the vaults?"

John pursed his lips in thought.

"… Decontamination sponge?" he practically asked nervously, finally wondering if it was a good idea to take the item.

"John, we _needed _that!" Pete exclaimed. "I had to postpone a field training because we had to question the whole of security regarding a missing item required for the training." John rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry," he lamely mumbled. "I'll return it soon." The elevator finally pinged and John instantly turned to Rose. "Looks like this is where I part," he mumbled, dreading what pelava he might find himself stuck in at the AT department as he sauntered out of the lift.

"John," Pete called out, placing a hand over a lift door to stop it from closing. The part Time Lord halted and glanced over his shoulder. "Take it easy," Pete continued. "And this goes for you, Rose. Things are happening in London and the last thing I want is to stand over your graves."

"Wow, that was a bit low," John murmured.

"Dad, nothing can get rid of us that easily," Rose assured. "But I have to agree with John. The graves thing was pretty low." Pete gave a nervous look.

"Sorry…"

John smirked, then nodded at Pete and Rose. "I'll see you at noon," he said, but noticed Pete's uneasiness. "Don't worry, Pete. You've got Jack's team investigating the case."

Pete nodded as he watched John swagger off back into the AT department.

**…**

Rose stepped out of the elevator to be greeted with a beaming Welsh friend. "Gwen!"

"Rose!" Gwen called out, walking towards Rose in a tight hug. Then they pulled apart. "I heard you came back. You haven't changed a bit," Gwen began. "The last time I saw you, you were so insistent to try the dimensional canon. Jack got so worried when you left."

"Jack Harkness. _Worried_?" Rose wondered out loud. "About me?" she quickly added. The two friends began giggling getting looks from around the offices.

"Does he know you're back?" Gwen asked.

Rose shook her head with a grin.

"Jack's just been cooped up in his office at Cardiff. If it weren't for this case our team got sent down here for, he would have only left his office to go piss or take a shower."

Rose laughed at that.

"Sounds like a worried Jack," she quipped. Then she finally studied Gwen for a moment. It was then a thought struck her. "Hey weren't you-"

"Oh!" Gwen brought her hand up to silence and already silent Rose as she fumbled around her pockets. She produced a mobile phone and showed the wallpaper. Rose's gaped at the unmistakable photo of a baby. Gwen could only watch Rose's reaction with a grin.

"Is that…"

"Her name's Anwen," Gwen beamed. "And yes. I was still pregnant the last time you saw me."

"Blimey, he was right," Rose murmured to herself.

The Doctor always said there was quite a bit of a time difference between this and the other universe, but she never really came to terms with it… Gwen cleared her throat.

"I hope you don't mind me asking. But who's that tall, skinny and handsome bloke everyone's been talking about?" Rose rolled her eyes.

"If you mean _"tall" _and _"skinny"_, you must mean John. And before you ask, we're not together. We're just…" Rose trailed off, thinking of a suitable way to describe it all. "Really close friends." she summarized, but Gwen just simply grinned.

"That's what they say…"

"What?"

Before Rose had a chance to say anything, she heard her name being called out across the office floor. Obviously a field agent by his black uniform and holsters, someone clearly not of the tenth floor where all the office people worked, looked around and spotted Rose. He approached her with a friendly smile.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, Miss Tyler. My name is Alfie Lewis. Your father has requested for me to take you on a field mission with us."

"Aaand that's my cue to leave," Gwen said before flitting away from Rose.

"Why me?" Rose asked, beginning to feel slightly impatient.

"We have detected unusually high concentrations of calcium in the western side of London and according to our sources you have a relatively large amount of data regarding the Raxacoricofallapatorian race known as the Slitheen. We would like you to aid us with an encounter with a group of them. They seem to be causing quite a bit of a stir…"

"Why can't you get the Doctor?" Rose complained, never wanting to sit in her office and do paper work even more than having to go through any business with the Slitheen. Alfie gave a wry smile.

"Unfortunately, he's in Big Ben disarming a bomb right now."

"Big Ben," she echoed.

"The Slitheen," he huffed.

And with that, Rose walked back into the elevator.

So much for her dad's lecture about taking things easy… Now what was that about standing over her grave?

**…**

John scowled. When he told himself he wanted a laid back shift, he didn't expect to find himself standing next to the Big Ben bell trying to disarm a 5cm in width and length bomb powerful enough to hit three quarters of London strapped to the enormous bell. It took a few seconds before his mind finally processed what the hell was going on: A powerful bomb. Is stuck on the Big Ben bell. Great. Add the analogue timer that's indicating that he had ten minutes before London goes _kaput_ and he was surely going to have a mental breakdown thanks to the nature of the stressful inner Donna. If he had to admit, he was beginning to feel pretty much bipolar… He shrugged off the thought and instinctively whipped out his sonic screwdriver, the precious item he made sure he "borrowed" from the TARDIS before coming to this universe. John glared at the little square bomb as if it personally insulted him when he realized the damn thing was triple deadlocked… He began to pry around the device with his bare fingers, but no luck until he noticed something etched on the side of the bomb. It was hardly legible but John could make out the letters _"T.M" _scratched on. _T.M? _What's the meaning of T.M? Initials? Brand name? There's a company that makes bombs and owns a brand? John was instantly torn away from his train of mental questions as the bomb suddenly glowed white. "What's it doing? Why's it glowing? I don't like glowing bombs…" John began to whine, running his hands against his hair until he looked like the perfect representation of a hedgehog. He noticed the timer flashing the number nine and groaned. He'd been thinking for a minute? Then if anything could have gotten any better, the bomb suddenly started speaking…

_"Nine minutes until detonation," _Came the robotic and smooth feminine voice of the bomb. John stared at the device in utter bewilderment. He already showed hatred towards the totally unfitting tone of the voice. Was the bomber out to annoy him?!

"Sir, if it's any motivation, sir," a burly brunette operative began. "We've only got nine minutes before the bomb detonates, sir."

"Yes, yes," John muttered, already growing annoyed of this new operative and his constant use of the word "sir". "Are you by any chance Johnny Smith?" The operative nodded eagerly, his oversized welding goggles nearly shying down his face before positioning it back onto his forehead.

"I'm part of the bomb disarming unit, sir." He replied with a proud smile.

"Yes, your reputation precedes you," John began; trying to sound as calm as he could, given his situation and the building stress he never thought he had in him. This was clearly the influence of Donna…

"Really?" Johnny beamed.

"Nice surname by the way," John quipped, feeling like he was the only one in the group of operatives trying to save London from a bomb. He glanced up and finally realized he _was _the only one trying to disarm the bomb much to his utter annoyance. "We have the same surname. Your first name's pretty similar to mine, too. Hooray, we win the game of life, now can you stop with the _"sir" _and get me the pliers!" John practically yelled under the influence of stress, impatience and irritation, realizing that was his behavior began to match Donna's. A look of fright flashed Johnny's face as he darted back to his backpack of items before passing a few tools to John who gave him a weary smile. "Sorry about that…"

"It's okay, sir," Johnny replied, only making john roll his eyes.

"Are you the only one from the bomb disarming unit?" John wondered, looking at the rest of the other Torchwood operatives holding guns by their front and casually strolling around, as if nothing was happening.

"Yeah" was the only thing Johnny said as he began rummaging through his bag. John frowned.

"So why did Pete send over a _squadron _of soldiers with me?!" he shrieked, rapidly moving his head to study the bomb. Johnny just gave a wry smile.

"He made it clear you were to be protected, sir," the operative replied, pulling out two rolls of wires.

_"Seven minutes until detonation."_

"We've got seven minutes, sir."

"Yes, okay!" John shouted, trying to untangle some stray wires he managed to pry out of the bomb. He had to stop the inner urge to rip the bomb out of its place and strap it on Johnny as if it would help anything. _Blimey_, Donna never took pressure nicely… "You there!" John called out to a nearby operative. "Hold this red wire. I just need to do something and it requires both of my hands." The operative nodded and tentatively approached the part Time Lord and held the wire as instructed as John darted to a silver brief case and picked up a shiny object. He looked up and noticed the view of the whole of Central London. "Nice view from the top of Big Ben," he noted.

_"Six minutes until detonation." _Came that annoying feminine voice.

"Six minutes, sir!" Johnny called out.

**…**

They arrived at Rose's apartment in her standard Torchwood issue black Range Rover and its engines died down to a purr. It was John's turn to drive since he had the less physically demanding tasks that day, despite rushing into central London to disarm a triple deadlocked bomb in Big Ben. Who thought there were such things as Slitheen mafia gangs fighting each other across galaxies? Earth _had _to be a part in their feud… John didn't bother parking the car in the garage out of fatigue. He looked over at the passenger seat and noticed Rose's sleeping figure. He yawned and dropped his head on the steering wheel, accidentally slumping his head on the car horn and waking her. She jerked up from the sudden noise and groaned. Then slapped John's arm in a weak fashion.

"What?" he murmured.

"Carry me."

"What?" he asked, more loudly than what he intended it to be. He slowly craned his neck to face her.

"Carry me into the apartment," she mumbled before dozing off "You're sleepin' on the sofa yeah?"

John sighed and yawned for a second time. He stretched his arms and blinked for a moment. He peered at the digital clock on the dashboard and moaned when the time indicated that it was 11:45pm. He clambered from the driver's seat and nearly stumbled out of the door, then trudged around to the passenger door and unlocked it. After unbuckling her seatbelt, John picked up Rose in his arms and turned around, closing the car door with his foot. As he struggled to carry her towards the building, he gave another annoyed groan realizing he had to walk up a flight of stairs, despite the fact it was a two-storey apartment block. He peered at Rose in his arms. She slept peacefully and he wondered if she'd notice if he simply left her lying on the ground beneath him and hurried off to sleep in her warm cozy bedroom. After all, she gave him a spare set of keys yesterday so she has her own set in case she wakes up… John silently chuckled and shook his head.

He wasn't in the mood for practical jokes.

He took a first step up the stairs and sighed.

**…**

John tucked Rose into bed and kissed her on the cheek before she subconsciously frowned and then stirred. He looked out the window and eventually thought it was best to park the car in the garage - especially after arguing over who had to scrape frost from the windscreen early in the morning that day as London approaches Winter.

Feeling a little more alert, John shrugged on his coat and sauntered back out into the open night towards the garage. He began to feel droplets hitting on his face… Mustering all the energy he possibly could, he squatted, grabbed the garage door by its bottom handles and heaved it upwards. He had to get the car in before it started raining… If there was one thing he wished was different, it would have to be London's depressing weather. Enveloped by the darkness of the night, John felt a little wary and relied on the warm glow the nearest streetlamp emitted to help him see. He glared at the inky blackness of the garage and felt his way along the inner wall. He hummed as he felt the unmistakable shape of the light switch and flick it on. What he saw inside the fully lit garage made his jaw drop.

**…**

Jackie plodded into the bedroom and found Pete fiddling with his phone. She sighed and clambered into bed next to her husband.

"I just put Tony into bed," she whispered, trying to grab his focus.

He shifted a little, then pulled the red duvet towards him and eventually looked up at his blonde wife.

"Thank God," he sighed. "He's been doing my head in – says he wants to work in Torchwood when he's older… I want him to do something safer," he murmured, scratching the back of his head. Jackie sighed as well.

"You boys and your _cool_, big boy jobs," she said, trying to sound sarcastic. "Why can't boys these days do proper jobs like accountancy or bein' lawyers?" Pete looked at her with an arched brow and she rolled her eyes. "Can't believe it, though…" she trailed off.

"About…?"

"Have you seen those two lately?" Jackie began. "It's like they're _tryin' _to love each other…"

"Jackie, you've seen how we started off," Pete reasoned.

"John's been tellin' me that he keeps wakin' up in the middle of the night because Rose keeps on dreamin' of the Doctor - says she's been talkin' in her sleep and it's distressin' the poor sod. He's been tellin' me that he's tryin' to make her happy and all with the space ship thing-"

"TARDIS." Pete corrected only to be talked over by Jackie.

"But it's like she's forcin' herself to be happy. She says she loves 'im and then the next minute, she's clueless…" Jackie finished off.

"Since when were you John's counselor?" Pete quipped, only to be slapped lightly on the shoulder.

"Pete, I'm serious. I want you to talk to Rose tomorrow. I don't think those two are seein' sense. John says he's not enough for Rose and Rose doesn't even know if she loves him for who he is, or who he looks like."

As if on cue, Pete's phone suddenly rang and the two turned their heads to the electrical appliance that vibrated on the bedside table.

Who would call them at nearly midnight?

"Expecting some one to call you?" Jackie enquired, but Pete gave her the same confused look she gave him. He picked up the phone and answered the call with his typical opening.

"Pete Ty-"

_"Pete, you really didn't have to,"_ came the familiar voice on the other side of the call.

"John?"

"_It's just that it might have cost you so much and you really, really didn't have to,"_ John babbled. Pete's eyes glinted.

"What are you talking about?" He gasped in mock confusion.

_"Pete, I'm really touched, but seriously, take it back."_ Pete stifled a giggle but Jackie looked at him with a frown. He heard a few mumbling followed by the sound of Rose's excited squeal over the phone as a loud bang was heard on the phone followed by muffling. Pete blinked and assumed the Doctor must have dropped his phone because he heard the words _"get back to bed, Rose,"_ over the phone and hung up. Instantly, Pete burst into a fit of laughter. Jackie gaped at her husband.

"What the bloody hell was that?"

"Well seeing as John has no TARDIS for a while and he'd been banging on about getting a faster ride, I bought him a custom designed BMW motorbike," he beamed. Jackie arched a brow. "I got him a helmet," he reassured, making her relax a little.

"Must have cost a lot…" she murmured.

"Perks of being a millionaire," he grinned.


	6. Snails Come Out

**Note: **I _did _say I would update in a week, but I thought I'd do it earlier than intended because I just bought my ticket to the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary convention in London before they sold out and now I can die happy. *punches the air* Fingers crossed David Tennant gets to attend the event! If he does, what I'll do next is beyond human belief. You don't have to worry about me. :P

Please don't ask how this chapter title came along...

Oh, and cookies to _StormWolf10 _and my friend Lijah and Beth for proof reading my chapters so far! You've done well to cope with me, haha!

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Chapter 6 - Snails Start Coming Out

John and Rose stared in silence at the TARDIS blue BMV motorbike displayed almost innocently in her garage. To top it all off, two helmets were placed on top of the seats, as if tempting them to ride the vehicle - the temptation was certainly too great. John subconsciously felt the motorbike keys in his hands; not removing his eyes off the bike in front if him.

"You _do _know how to ride a motorbike, right?" Rose asked rather hesitantly, clutching her bag. John gave a feeble and unsure nod.

"I… I think so," he murmured, trying to recall a past memory. "I rode one before." Rose turned to him in surprise.

"Really?" He never looked the type to ride a motorbike. Especially given his erratic TARDIS driving skills.

"But that was a long time ago," John quickly added, scratching the back of his head. "Gotta love your dad for getting me a motorbike though. Especially a TARDIS blue bike," he remarked. He was tempted to take it out for a spin, but wondered if this was a good idea. But what Rose asked next took him by surprise.

"Wanna take it out for a spin?" she asked nervously, only for John to hum in uneasiness. "We could try ridin' it to work. It's not too far and we'll look pretty epic entering Torchwood on a BMV motorbike."

"I dunno…" he trailed off, grinning inside at that last part. "I'm not too experienced with a motorbike and it's raining outside and Jackie would slap me all the way back to the Time Vortex if she finds out her daughter has been riding on the back of her friend's motorbike, but it could be dangerous."

"..."

There was a brief silence followed by the sudden laughter of the two as they both clambered onto the motorbike.

**…**

The TARDIS blue BMW motorbike pulled into the basement parking under Canary Wharf. Its powerful engines died down to a soft rumble as the passenger behind the driver stumbled from the bike and pulling out her bike helmet in a wild fashion.

"_Really?!_ You can't keep speedin' around London like that, you coulda gotten ourselves _killed_, John!" The blonde girl sighed as she began fixing her hair. However, deep inside, she was rather thankful about riding the bike as it created a perfect excuse to wear a helmet and shield her hair from the rain.

Eventually, the bike engines died down and a thin man with a shock of brown hair wearing a blue pinstripe suit and maroon Converses clambered from the bike, clutching his helmet in one hand whilst only managing to hold a few paperwork. He had the face of a stubborn child and in time scratched the back of his head in an embarrassed manor.

"Sorry, I got a little carried away," he murmured then studied his new bike for a moment.

That human part of him wanted to scream for joy at the TARDIS blue vehicle that stood before him, whilst his Time Lord half would have preferred to be happy with Rose's Torchwood issue car. It was a bunch of mixed emotions, but Rose seemed content with Pete's little gift and he grew to accept the fact that it made her happy. In fact, she encouraged him to drive the _car_ since the day they he arrived in this universe, despite not having a driver's license. John began to wonder if Rose was just throwing him into the deep end of life... But he couldn't let her down. Not when things seem to be going in the right direction.

They were quiet as they sauntered towards a flight of stairs, both holding their wet motorcycle helmets. John was the first to speak.

"I hate the rain," he murmured. "Makes Britain ten times more glum, ruins outdoor plans, snails start coming out and it makes me feel physically wet and damp," he finished off, spreading his arms out to indicate his soggy clothes. Rose giggled at that and waved her raincoat in front of his face.

"Tha's why you wear a raincoat," she teased. John pouted and ran his hands through his hair making it stick on end. Then he remembered something.

"We're going to start firing up the warp star in about two hours."

Rose had a hint of a smile.

"How long would it take to grow?" she wondered. John looked up in thought.

"According to the given numbers, I'd say about a year… maybe slightly less if a constant amount of energy is being concentrated at the chunk of TARDIS." He summarized, then sighing.

Rose noticed his growing disappointment and arched a brow.

"Wha's wrong? You changed your mind about the TARDIS?" she asked hesitantly. John glared at Rose and shook his head petulantly.

"Of course not!" he instantly let out. Then tugged his ear in nervousness. "It's just that it's gonna be a long wait…"

"A wait worth going through," Rose supposed with a shrug. Then she laughed at another thought. "Looks like you're gonna go domestic for a while." John only scowled at that.

"If it wasn't for Donna, I don't think I would have coped better with domestic life compared my full Time Lord self…" he murmured.

"I suppose that's one good thing about you," Rose mumbled to herself.

"Hm?"

"Oh, nothing." she quickly replied.

They finally reached the ground floor lobby of Torchwood and were greeted by a few familiar faces. The lobby was filled with a number of unfamiliar faces in white lab coats as well as some UNIT soldiers dotted here and there.

"What's up?" John asked.

"Oh!" Rose remembered. "UNIT are transferring a few staff, since we're understaffed."

"Torchwood ran out of operatives?"

"No, not operatives. More like medical staff." Rose replied. "You know for once you could actually live up to your name and help out in the medical ward. I've seen you heal people before."

"I'll stick with Physics and alien technology thank you very much," John quipped. "Never liked hospitals…"

**…**

"Hi! It's nice to meet you all, I'm Rose Tyler and I'll be escortin' you to Torchwood's hospital bay."

A group of about ten UNIT doctors and nurses followed Rose along the white corridors. One familiar person particular was keen enough to approach Rose and ask the most straight to the point question. She was a dark skinned female, about the same height as Rose and judging by her youthful eyes, she must have been a new recruit. That, however, didn't detract to how much experience she had as UNIT had the tendency to take on the best.

"Is it true you travelled with the Doctor?" she asked excitedly.

The others glanced longingly at Rose who blushed. Well, there was no way she could ease her way out of the situation so she nodded. The group went giddy except for a young male.

"Martha, that was a little intrusive," he murmured.

"Yeah, sorry," Martha mumbled and Rose gave a weary smile. "Let me start again." She composed herself and stuck out her hand. "My name's Martha Jones. I'm a junior doctor working to be a professional doctor. I've always wanted to be a psychiatrist, but my mum says it's more practical to be a doctor."

Rose shook her hand and smiled. The Doctor mentioned Martha in the other universe – he always mentioned how brilliant she was; _"The Girl who Walked the Earth"_ was what he called her.

How ironic it was to meet Martha in this universe…

She turned to face the rest of the group and they all introduced themselves to her. They were actually a friendly bunch Rose thought and she went as far as already remembering all of their names. Of course, there was Martha the eager junior doctor, Dylan and Adam who were also junior doctors, Lennie the burly consultant, Max, Danny and Scarlet the anesthetists and the brunette sisters Sophie and Chloe the nurses.

The man who told Martha off walked up to Rose and gave her a nervous smile.

"I'm Rory," he declared, shaking Rose's hand. "Rory Williams." He added in. "I'm not exactly crème of the crop in medicine, but I'd consider myself a relatively good nurse."

"Oh, Rory Williams," Rose realized. "I've actually read some good stuff about you in the files I got given. You're quite a promising nurse from Leadworth," she smiled, and then looked at the rest of the group. "Of course, the rest of you have already given me good impressions." She continued ushering the medical team around the second floor before passing around keycards to each member. "These are your temporary passes to go around Torchwood. As you might be aware, Torchwood doesn't tolerate the abuse of keycards. We want to have little risk of foreigners entering the base."

**…**

John held up his sonic screwdriver at his five fascinated AT colleagues, Rose and Pete. "Lucky for you, I managed to borrow one of the sonic screwdrivers from the TARDIS."

"_"Borrow"_?" Rose sarcastically asked, only making John roll his eyes.

"Since I'm good at making stuff," the part Time Lord began. "I was thinking of making things that can benefit Torchwood." There were a few uneasy faces and he rolled his eyes. "No weapons or any harmful stuff," he reassured and they relaxed. "So, I was thinking-"

"That sounds dangerous," Pete quipped.

"Yeah, it sounds scary," Rose added in, putting a hand over her mouth in a mock fright.

John scowled.

"Oh, that's fine if you don't want to your agents to get somewhere on time without teleports and transmats," he informed them. He noticed Pete's eyes glisten and continued to tempt him. "If you don't want your Torchwood staff to have simple prototypes of my sonic screwdriver, that's fine by me."

"Really?" Pete breathed, practically drooling over the idea.

"I could save lots of lives. How many operatives die because they haven't scanned for any poisonous gasses, or threatening life signals, or because they can't even disarm a bomb?" They all nodded at the thought. "I mean it, I could save lots more lives just by doing these little things."

"What happened to non-interference?" Rose chipped in.

"I'm not putting the human race in danger," he objected. "It's not like history could change drastically or the whole human race goes _kaput_." Rose sighed. There was no point in arguing with him.

"Well, lucky for you, this parallel world doesn't have as much threat as the other one. Well, not that I recall," she added. "We're not exactly facing too much danger in the face."

"_Everyone _faces _too much_ danger in the face," he stated and Rose rolled her eyes. Like she thought – there was no point in arguing with him. "And maybe if the TARDIS finishes growing, we can finally interact with other worlds and possibly become allies." As good as that sounded for John, Pete shook his head at the prospect.

"_No. _That last bit spoilt it," he murmured. John shrugged and grinned.

"Worth a try," he supposed. He pocketed the sonic device and cleared his throat, looking expectantly at Pete.

"Well, interacting with worlds sounds interesting," one of John's colleagues chipped in. The other four AT colleagues nodded at that and John grinned.

"I'm sorry?" Rose wondered, trying not to sound too rude as she glanced at the ginger man who'd just joined in the conversation. John's head perked up.

"Oh, I haven't introduced these two to you!" John exclaimed. He lightly shoved the skinny man who spoke out. "Rose, is Ted Collins. Ted Collins, this is Rose." She studied Ted for a moment and came to a conclusion that he had a decent fashion sense. Judging from his scruffy look, he hasn't got a girlfriend. Yet.

"The one who mistook a grenade for a Magic Eight ball?" Rose speculated. Ted's face flushed red at that and looked downwards to avoid her gaze. Yep. He'd be fine with women.

"Yup!" John replied, popping the "p". He pointed at a relatively tall burly man with sharp facial features and dark brown hair in a smart black suit. "This is Ianto Jones. No you don't know him," he quickly added, noticing a similar pattern Rose was making every time they would meet a parallel version of a previous acquaintance.

Ianto gave a wry smile and nodded at her as Rose tried to play it cool and smile back. John proceeded to point at a rather short blonde man in an orange boiler suit and the tall man with straight black hair in a standard business suit.

"That's Max Morgan and Harry Evans," he continued as the two men greeted her with shy smiles. "They're brothers." Then he pointed at the form of a man under the table who Rose assumed was sorting out a few cables. "Oi, Frank! Be a gentleman and say hello to Rose," John called out with a raised brow. The so-called "Frank" perked his head up from the table, but banged it in the process making Rose laugh. John rolled his eyes. Rose noticed he was brunette and slightly well built. He was quite the looker.

"Fine, okay," Pete interrupted, making John grin. "You can make the sonic screwdrivers. But only because that was a tempting and good offer," he added.

"Thank you," the part Time Lord replied with gratitude. "It's the least I can do for giving me so much here."

"We didn't have much choice," Rose teased, only for John to roll his eyes at her.

"The guys at the AT department can help out. It's gonna be tricky to make since some components are found in other worlds – some you wouldn't really wanna visit…" he mumbled that last part, recalling a bad memory. He took out a pen and a nearby piece of scrap paper and jotted numerous items before passing it over to Pete. "Whilst cataloguing some technology, I stumbled upon some items Torchwood owns. I was wondering if you don't mind getting some of those items." To Rose's utter amusement; John had the look of an innocent begging puppy. Pete glanced at the paper and let out a winding sigh.

"Blimey, John. Some of these items will have to be transported from other Torchwood bases around the world seeing as I signed some out of this base not so long ago."

"See!" John began with a look that shouted, "_I told you so!"_. "Transmats! I said could help make transmats to make the process twenty three times quicker."

"One at a time," Rose laughed, noticing John's excitement growing and growing with every syllable he let out from that gob. He arched a brow.

"You're not the boss of me, Rose Tyler," he got back. Rose rolled her eyes at him before noticing a long green metal rod on a worktop and picking it up in curiosity.

"One at a time," Pete quipped.

"Yes, _boss_," John answered with a mock salute, a grin plastered on his face. He rounded in on Rose and took the green rod from her hands as she pouted like a child who just had their toy taken away from them.

"But not the 'interacting with other alien planets' bit. I can't risk another alien invasion," Pete added. John nodded at that. The AT guys however, silently seemed to disapprove that.

**…**

Several minutes later, Rose and her father stood side by side in the elevator as it ascended up the Canary Wharf building. Pete shifted on the spot and cleared his throat to grab his daughter's attention. Apparently it did.

"Hmm?"

"Rose, are you happy?" Pete asked simply. Rose stared at her father in confusion. This wasn't a trick question?

"Yes…?"

"Are things fine between you and John?" he began rather nervously. And with that, she sighed.

"…Yes." Pete noticed her reaction and gave a wry smile.

"You hesitated. What's wrong?"

"Has mum said anything to you again?" she whined.

"That doesn't matter. I'm your father, Rose. Now tell me how you're feeling because your mother's not gonna stop buggin' me until you do so." Rose rolled her eyes. She knew it! Of course this was the work of her mum. But it wouldn't hurt to tell her dad.

"I don't know how to deal with him, dad. I loved _the Doctor_, and John's just… different but the same. And different. Oh, I don't know," she gave up, but Pete gave her a smile of reassurance. "He just needs more..." she stopped to figure out a suitable word. "Maintenance." Pete laughed at that.

"When me and your mum first started off, I was just a shell of a man. I didn't know if this was the right thing to do. I kept thinking she was just a replacement of my dead wife. But she was still my wife." Rose listened intently. "Then it suddenly dawned on me: Would the dead Jackie want me to be sad and lonely for the rest of my life, or happy with the woman I still love? All I'm trying to say is that it took a heck of a long time until we both realized that we are just meant to be. We didn't want to be sad for the rest of our lives, so we had to make the most of it." Rose took a moment for her father's words to sink in. He really _did _know Rose's position in all this.

"You think we'll work it out?" Rose wondered. Pete nodded petulantly.

"Just talk to John. Tell him what you're feeling and get him to do the same. It's what your mum and me found the best way to relieve us from the tension. Even though your situation is more complicated than mine and Jackie's, there's no doubt nothing will tear you two apart," he reassured.

"Oh, it's happened quite a few times," Rose murmured, recalling various memories.

The elevator pinged. They've reached Rose's floor.

**…**

Adam Mitchell sighed as he turned the next page of the day's newspaper. The suit shop was pleasingly silent and he closed his eyes for a brief moment. Only the distant bustling from out of the store could be heard, but the counter being strategically positioned towards the back of the store proved to be of great convenience. Good on the boss. Being a suit store, not many people would come by. Adam _hated _it. The recent lack of customers bored him. But when customers _do _come in, they proved to be an interesting bunch. Who knew suit buyers would be sassier than the average shoe shopper? Suddenly an article of the "Top 50 Worst Dressed Men" grabbed his attention and he proceeded to let the silence of the store envelop him as he delved into what the article had to offer. As a result, Adam didn't notice a tall burly man in a suit enter the store.

"Good afternoon, Adam," the man began in a Welsh accent. Adam, in turn, jumped from the sudden disruption and looked up at the man towering above him in front of the counter. "Are my shirts ready to be collected?"

"Ianto!" Adam beamed, closing his newspaper and standing up from his accustomed chair. He leaned over the counter to give Ianto a friendly hug as they exchanged greetings. "How have things been in Torchwood?" Ianto shrugged.

"Good, good," he replied indifferently, loosening his tie. "It's been pretty hectic, but we got a new guy working at the AT department so it's getting there."

"New guy?" Adam echoed.

"Yeah, you left us in quite a tough situation," Ianto teased. "Once you left the AT department, things have just gone downhill until John came along."

"Well, seems like you're doing fine," Adam noted. "That John guy sounds to be the right person to take my place."

"I have to admit he is," Ianto surmised. "But there's always a place left for you in the AT department. _"The "Two Musketeers" of the AT department"_. That's what Pete kept calling us because we never catalogued anything out of laziness." Adam smiled at the memories. "I miss my best friend in Torchwood." Ianto persisted, but Adam shook his head.

"Too much has happened and Torchwood was beginning to overrun my life." Adam shrugged. "Better run away from the job before it gets me."

"Can't argue with that," Ianto chuckled. "It must be a giant transition. I mean from Torchwood to a suit store…"

"And look at me. I'm still alive," Adam grinned. "And reading posh newspapers." He added, only for the two to laugh.

"Well, seeing as we're not working together anymore, we should keep in contact with each other. The technology these days and their _Facebook_ and _Twitter _and _MySpace_…" Ianto trailed off.

"Well, it's a good thing you've suddenly grown fond of suits and became a regular customer," Adam quipped. "I get to see you more often than I thought."

"Well, seeing as I was told I look nice in suits, I might as well dress to impress," Ianto supposed. Adam arched a brow as he studied the man for a brief moment.

"You know, whoever said that is right," Adam noted. "She's got a good eye. And you're certainly going in the right direction to impress." Ianto looked down out of nervousness.

"Actually, it was a _he_, not a she," he murmured, shuffling uncomfortably on the spot. Adam looked at the man in slight surprise and kept a straight face.

"Oh…"

"Are my shirts ready?" the Welsh man started, trying to change the topic.

"I'm sorry, I haven't received your orders today. They've been dispatched two days ago and should come tomorrow," Adam replied, scanning his computer. He scratched the back of his head feeling rather awkward for seemingly wasting his time, even though it wasn't his fault.

"Oh…" Ianto trailed off, looking rather disappointed. "Better remind myself," he heartily chuckled, taking out a small black diary from his inner jacket pocket and jotting something in it. For the whole time, Adam had been studying Ianto. It was obvious. He was keeping it inside. Ever since that day…

"You know," Adam began. "It's still not too late to get a girlfriend." Seeing where he was getting at, Ianto shook his head.

"We promised we'd never talk about it," he muttered, looking hurt.

"Ianto, it's been nearly a year since-"

"We promised," Ianto repeated with steal in his voice. "I loved Lisa and that bastard murderer took her and drowned her. Maybe we were just not meant to be. No, maybe I'm not meant to be with anyone. Yeah, that's it. Fate. A _cruel _fate." He spat out. "It should have been _me_ to leave Torchwood, not you. I can't even go into the base without hearing people talking about Case 132. They'd look at me with stupid sorrowful eyes. It's not as it their loved ones happened to be victims of Case 132."


	7. Invisible Man

**Note: **Oh, whoops! I fell asleep last night and forgot to post this chapter... That's gotta be the best excuse. Ever.

Anyway, please excuse some "weird" spelling. I've always been working on a Mac Book and they have the tendency to correct my spelling according to the American way. No, I don't care if "colour" is spelt "color"! Grrr...

And whoever went to see Doctor Who at the BBC Proms... I am just brimming with too much jealousy here.

* * *

Chapter 7 - Invisible Man

Adam Mitchell swore he was hearing _The Bee Gees_ but shrugged off the thought. Besides, he was asleep. It was a shame… he was enjoying his dream. Then it struck him that he was, in fact, hearing _The Bee Gees_. Specifically _Stayin' Alive_, but who cared early in the morning?

It suddenly hit him that that was his ringtone he was hearing.

Instantly, his eyes flashed open and he flailed in his blankets, diving for his mobile phone in the pockets of his stay pair of trousers at the bottom of the bed. He sighed as that familiar and so-called "unknown number" appeared on his screen.

"It's 5 o'clock in the morning," he grumbled into the phone, not even bothering to say "good morning".

_"And the earlier you wake up, the more time you spend on this investigation before the board committee decides to decommission your case, Mitchell," _the strong voice on the other end of the call replied. Adam instinctively bolted right up from his lying position.

"Sorry, sir. Please excuse my delirious tone back then. I just woke up," he quickly replied.

_"Or did I wake you up?" _the voice slowly asked. Adam was utterly thankful this was a phone call because no one from the other end of the call would witness him turn red in embarrassment and shame.

"No, sir," he lied. "May I ask why the board are planning to decommission my case?"

_"You've been working on the case for too long and haven't gathered anything useful in the past three months. You're losing your touch, Mitchell. You're supposed to be an asset to MI5." _Adam shifted uncomfortably on his bed, nervously scratching the back of his head. _"They don't wanna waste more money on the case if it's never gonna be solved."_

"I can assure you that we will find the killer, sir," Adam persisted. "I have a lead. His name's Ianto Jones."

**…**

He was the invisible man - just another head that was part of the crowd. That's what John had always accustomed himself to: accidentally stumble upon a world that ironically faces some form of danger, save that world and zoom off in his blue box. But being someone who'd turned out of nowhere to marry Rose Tyler, daughter of the world known millionaire Pete Tyler began to take its toll.

Rose sauntered into the kitchen, letting out an almighty yawn where she saw John sitting by the dining table in his TARDIS blue pajamas, gaping at _The Sun_ newspaper. He lifted the paper, showing an article with a large picture (well actually, more of a mug shot) of him and Rose on their TARDIS blue motorbike. "I'm a _"very well known Torchwood scientist who also works for NASA and attended Harvard"?"_ he read off the paper, making Rose grin.

"Yup," she replied indifferently.

"No..." he trailed off. "Not a question. I'm a very well known Torchwood scientist who also works for NASA and attended Harvard." She couldn't help but giggle.

"Yes!" She insisted.

He raised a brow and she thought it was best to tell him.

"When sortin' out your paper work, me and Amy thought we could have a bit of a laugh," she said, but John had that worried look. "Aw, don't look like that! We gave you a good back story: You came to Torchwood to make a few business proposals, you bumped into me at the lobby and it was love at first sight." The Doctor gave a weary smile. It was weird having a back-story.

"_"Love at first sight"_?" he echoed. Rose sat down and gave a wry smile.

"Well, how are we supposed to explain why the public are seein' us two together? What else could we have said?"

"Oh, I don't know. I could have possibly been your lodger?" he wondered out loud. John noticed Rose's warning glance and faltered slightly. "Or it could be love at first sight," he lamely, but quickly added before proceeding to peel a banana.

Rose stood up from her chair and went for the fridge and pulled out a carton of milk. John quietly watched her making a bowl of cereals as she reached up to a cupboard to get a glass. It suddenly struck him that never in his nine hundred years of existence would he even go as far as living with Rose Tyler, let alone being pretty much stuck with her.

"Wait, who reads _the Sun _newspaper?! That's rather offending, isn't it? An article about me on the front page being in the same newspaper as... naked women." Rose laughed out loud at that.

"Every newspaper managed to find gossip and mention you in them. I just got _The Sun _because they published the best mug shot of you so far." John looked aghast.

"Who goes into a shop and takes a photograph of me trying on some trousers and falling over a clothes rail?!" he whined, totally oblivious of the answer.

"Journalists," Rose replied. "Photographers, stalkers..."

"Yes, I get the picture," John cut in, making Rose giggle.

"So how's work coming along?"she suddenly asked.

"Mmm…"

"What?" Rose turned around to the sight of John holding a newspaper in one hand and a half eaten banana in the other gazing longingly at her. As if he was paused, he suddenly snapped to attention, looking questioningly at her.

"Sorry, what was that? Oh, work!" he exclaimed, that metaphorical light bulb above his head lighting up brighter than ever. Rose rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, it's alright. Actually, would you mind telling your dad to hurry up with the items I requested? If he wants those sonic screwdriver prototypes, he's gonna have to step it up."

"Why can't you ask yourself?" Rose complained, placing her bowl of cereals onto table and sitting directly in front of John. He gave her a sheepish smile.

"I already did," he began. "Thought he might listen to his daughter more." Rose sighed and stuffed a spoonful of _Frosties _in her mouth. "Besides, you're office is closer to his office," he said over a mouthful of banana, then proceeding to turn to the next page of the newspaper.

"You're unbelievably lazy for an overactive alien who runs around the whole universe," Rose laughed, poking him hardly on the forehead.

"Ow!" John retreated, covering his forehead with his banana-wielding hand. "Be careful, you could have damaged my brain. What would Torchwood do without my superior brain?" Rose rolled her eyes as she stood up from her chair and ambled towards kettle.

"Keep talkin' and you sleep outside by the front door for the night," Rose warned in a light joking tone. John rubbed his forehead and pouted before shoving the rest of his banana into his mouth. He heard the strong beating of the rain outside and sighed. By Rassilon, he will never ever sleep outside in the rain. The sofa was far enough...

"Has it ever rained this much in England?" he suddenly wondered, pointing his head at the window. Rose shrugged.

"They say it's global warmin'. What with all the ice caps meltin' and sea levels risin' and drastic weather changes, London would be flooded in the next twenty years," Rose murmured as she immersed a teabag into a cup of piping hot water.

"Where did you hear _that_?" he asked with a tone of disgust.

"I watched it on TV some time ago," she replied indifferently. "How come you've never heard of it?" John shook his head.

"That's all a bunch of primitive rubbish!" he exclaimed. Rose felt a bit reassured at that reply. Perhaps London would be safe. "London gets flooded in exactly _thirty four years and ninety eight days_, not twenty. That's just simple guessing!" he added, making her sigh deeply inside.

John looked around and caught the most dreadful thing he would have to encounter for the rest of his life lying almost a meter away from him on the table.

"Rose, please tell me that's not the bills," he groaned, staring hard at the various envelopes scattered on the dining table.

"You're payin' half of them by the time you settle in financially," she replied with a grin. John dropped his head to his arms and groaned again. "Stop it, you're lucky dad set up a bank account for you and pre paid one hundred thousand pounds for living expenses into that account."

"If we had the TARDIS, we get our own _free _electricity, _free _gas, _free _water, _free _living, _free _travel, _free _universal language translation, _free _–" He was cut off the moment Rose threw a tea towel at him.

"At least you get high paid wages workin' for Torchwood." Rose noted. That was true, John had to admit that. But it really amazed him how the universe seemed to be running on practically money. "Oh, are you gonna take your motorbike to work today?"

"Yup."

"Can I ride to work with you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Good, because you're payin' for the petrol today," she quickly added. John groaned even louder than before.

**…**

At exactly 11am, Ianto Jones entered the suit store and greeted Adam Mitchell with a smile.

"G'morning, mate," Adam greeted, taking a sip of coffee. "I received your shirts early today. Just gimme a minute."

"Thanks," Ianto called out as he watched Adam bolt into the stock room. He shook his wet umbrella dry and peered at his watch and gave a satisfactory smile. He had an hour before his shift started. That left enough time to try on the new shirts. Adam came back with three shirts in assorted in colours and neatly folded.

"Just as you ordered," Adam noted, passing the shirts to Ianto. Ianto smiled in thanks. Adam looked down in thought and cleared his throat, getting Ianto's attention. "About yesterday, I didn't mean for you to bring Lisa up…" he murmured. Ianto shook his head and forced a reassuring smile.

"No, I was just a bit under the weather that day. Not your fault," he insisted, flipping up the collars on his black trench coat. He smiled and nodded as he was about to head out when Adam grabbed his arm.

"Ianto, there's something I have to tell you," Adam declared.

A sense of anxiety loomed the air and the deafening silence that surrounded the two friends made Ianto wonder whether this was bad news or good news. Please let it be the latter. Adam closed his eyes and let out a winding sigh. He looked around and a sense of uneasiness overwhelmed him.

"Take your time, Adam," Ianto assured, giving him a smile.

"Can we talk about it over lunch?" Adam asked, if not, begged. Ianto obliged and nodded. "Let's say _Starbucks _just outside Canary Wharf at 1 o'clock?" Ianto squeezed Adam's shoulder in reassurance.

"I'll let my boss know."

**…**

John and Rose approached the main lobby of Torchwood, shaking off the last bit of rain on their clothes. John was wet the most seeing as he had been holding the umbrella for Rose, and he sneezed. Rose shoved a few paper works on him as she rummaged through her bag in search for her Torchwood ID. Then he sneezed again. Deep inside, it hurt her because _he _never sneezed. John groaned.

"Primitive immune systems," he muttered under his breath, making Rose chuckle. "Looks like I'm gonna get a cold soon from this rain. Time Lords never get colds," he grumbled, letting Rose take back her paper work as he fumbled around his pockets for his ID card. He sniffed.

"And here you are, about to catch one," she quipped, swiping her card on the scanner by the two silver doors that lead to the locker rooms. John huffed as he proceeded to swipe his card and pushed past the heavy doors. They entered their locker room where they encountered a shirtless Jack Harkness facing away from them as he tied his boots.

"Jack?!" Rose blurted, looking at Jack, then John and back at Jack again. The man's head jerked up at the familiar voice and he looked as if he saw a ghost.

"Rose?!" he exclaimed in return, the distinguishable American accent already answering some of the questions circling in Rose's mind. "Oh my God, I thought you were gone!" Jack bolted from the wooden bench and threw his arms around her. "I thought the dimension canon project wouldn't be successful," he murmured into her hair. Jack looked up and noticed John who was standing beside Rose, tugging at his ear before parting from Rose. He gave a smug grin.

"Hello, Jack," John began with a forced smile. "We meet again…"

"So _you're_ the _"very well known Torchwood scientist who also works for NASA and attended Harvard"_," he remarked, holding up a newspaper with a picture of John on the front page. "Nice picture," he quickly added, slapping John rather hard on the back making him wince.

"Thank you," John replied flippantly.

"Oooohhh…" Jack laughed as he continued reading the paper out loud. "_"John Smith has been seen with daughter of millionaire, Pete Tyler, a number of times this month."_"

"That doesn't mean anything," Rose objected defiantly, much to John's utter disappointment.

"Can I just say that I wanted to be her lodger?" John chipped in.

"Hush, Mr. _"I don't want to take an elevator two floors up to Pete Tyler's office"_," Rose snapped, bringing out that morning's memories. John rolled his eyes as he shoved his locker key into his locker and opened it with slight force. Jack watched the two bicker in utter amusement.

"So how's the investigation?" John wondered, pulling out various unknown objects Rose dared not to ask what they were followed by his white lab coat. Jack sighed.

"Nothing's cropping up…" Jack replied, scratching the back of his head. "The evidence we were given from people show no clear link to the actual case apart from the fact that they were women being killed at certain periods of time between each murder, and possible suspects turn out to be innocent. Some victims of the case refuse to even co-operate with us making it ten times harder. I think it's best to leave this case in more capable hands."

"What?!" John whined. "No, you're capable to take on this case. Don't give up now! Are you just gonna let that murderer roam free and continue killing? He's already committed three murders and I will personally jump into the Time Vortex just so that fourth murder will never happen."

"You'll what?" Rose interrupted.

"No that was an exaggeration, but you get the point," John babbled. "Don't give up, Jack. And sweet baby Rassilon, put on a shirt."

**…**

As expected, Ianto arrived at _Starbucks _at 1 o'clock on the dot. He peered around and found Adam sitting in one of the far tables in the corner. Already, a feeling of nervousness built up inside him, but frankly, he didn't know why. He shook his head in an attempt to get rid of any excess rain on his hair. Adam spotted Ianto and gestured for him to come over as Ianto noticed there were two cups waiting on the table.

"I got your classic favourite," Adam began, pointing his head at a cup, presumably Ianto's cup. "Café latte. Made sure it had forty percent milk with one and a half spoons of sugar to sweeten the foam and their coffee beans are pretty reasonable. You can't really change the taste output of a coffee bean." Ianto smiled at that.

"Thanks," he merely said, feeling like it wasn't enough. He sat opposite Adam and went for the cup.

"It's what friends are for," Adam replied with a shrug. Both of them drank their hot drinks in total silence. From time to time, Adam began fiddling with stray packets of sugar on the table out of nervousness. Ianto eventually looked expectantly at his friend and cleared his throat.

"I work for MI5."

"What?" Ianto boggled. Adam sighed, scrubbing his face with his hands.

"I'm an MI5 agent working on the disappearances in London," he stated. "I'm talking about the so-called "Case 132" Torchwood is investigating."

"Shut up, that isn't funny," Ianto warned, but Adam shook his head as he presented his MI5 badge. Ianto stared at the triangle logo, the crest in the middle followed by Adam's picture. He didn't want to admit Adam was telling the truth.

"Ianto, I really need your help," Adam pressed.

"What the hell?!" Ianto exclaimed, his voice raising with every word that came out of his mouth.

"The committee want to decommission the case unless I get some solid evidence. Ianto, I _need _you to co-operate with me," he practically begged.

"We're meant to be friends!" Ianto started yelling, attracting attention in the café. "All this time I trusted you!"

"Ianto, _please_!"

"Since when have you been working for MI5?" Ianto snarled, hand subconsciously hovering over his holster. Then a thought suddenly struck him. "Case 132 started a year ago. You've been working undercover. Even in Torchwood, haven't you? You've been working in the suit store because you know I'm a frequent customer." Adam looked at Ianto with guilty and sorrowful eyes.

"… I'm… I'm sorry."

"Forget it," Ianto snapped, pushing his café latte away from him as he stood up and shrugged on his trench coat. "Forget it!" he shouted and stormed out of the café.

**…**

"John, what is it this time?" Pete began with a tone of impatience as he entered the AT department after being summoned by John. Again. "You know I'm a very busy man."

Everyone had gathered around a worktable and John looked up, grinning. Judging from the smear of a green suspicious substance on his cheek, Pete had a feeling he would need to page the cleaners.

"Check this out," John said, producing a weird, if not, dangerous looking and round contraption. If it weren't for the duct tape wound around the whole thing, Pete would have thought that the protruding parts would have easily fallen off.

"We helped make it," Max Morgan chipped in with a proud smile. "Well, everyone except Ianto."

"Wait, where _is _Ianto?" Frank Cooper realised. John shrugged.

"Last time I was with him, he came up to me and asked for a later lunch break."

"What the hell is it?" Pete seriously asked, jogging the other's attention. Pete was already judging the contraption John held by its rugged appearance. It probably does something ludicrous and he'd have to huff and trudge back to his office because John wasted his time. Again.

"It's an electromagnetic pulse device, or short for EMP device. It releases a short burst of electromagnetic energy. These two switches here," he said, pointing at two loose buttons sticking out of a raised bit of metal. "They switch sources, so if I want to release an electric pulse, I'd press the blue button. And if I want to release a magnetic pulse, I'd press the red button."

"_Why_?" he asked anxiously. John's explanation practically made it sound dangerous.

"It destroys any electrical equipment within a one mile radius of its position. It's pretty neat for infiltration," John replied. Pete stared, unblinking, for a moment.

"That's… that's actually the best thing you've called me down for," Pete exclaimed. John grinned at that.

"Well, of course this is just a prototype," He began, holding up the contraption again. "It won't look like this."

"Well, thank God. I was about to say," Pete laughed. "So what's that green stuff on your cheek?" he asked, pointing at his cheek. John looked genuinely confused at that.

"What?" He placed a hand on his cheek and blanched as he felt a gooey consistency of a paste of some sort run down his hands. "Ew, alien snot…" The other four of his colleagues suddenly burst out laughing.

"We found a century old alien snot in this golden box in one of the alien artifacts container," Harry Evans, one of John's colleagues replied indifferently in answer to Pete's questioning gaze. That's it, Pete thought. He was a million percent done.

"Oh, Pete," John called out as he started wiping his cheek with tissue. "Did you manage to get the items I requested for the sonic screwdriver project?" Pete sighed.

"I'll get the transfer papers done by today," Pete huffed. "Sorry, I've just been too worked up on this Case 132."

As if on cue, a voice interrupted the commotion.

"Uh, Pete?" John heard that familiar American accent and turned around to see Jack's head poked into the room. It was Jack. "Urm, John, you got a bit of stuff on your cheek," he called out pointing at his cheek. John stared wide-eyed.

"I thought I got rid of it!" he cried out.

"What is it, Jack?" Pete demanded over John. To his surprise, Jack's face turned stone cold.

"We've found another dead woman's body," Jack announced, only for everyone in the room to be silenced yet again.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me," Pete sighed.

"No, sir. We think she's another victim of Case 132."


	8. Tough Cookies

**Note: **Ehehe... I just came back from my tour in Holland and I am _bloody _tired. Never again will I touch my violin. Not until September...

Anyway. _Hopefully _I can continue updating weekly, but considering it's my summer and I just got offered a part time job and I want to make my Doctor Who cosplay for the 50th anniversary con... Well... We'll see how it goes. :P

On a side note, thanks for the reviews, favourites and follows! It didn't really occur to me that this story would be recognised and I'm chuffed that you took the time to read this story so far!

Whoops! That's enough of my garble, I shall throw chapter 8 at you all.

* * *

Chapter 8 - Tough Cookies

"Oh blimey…" John murmured as he peered from the car window and noticed an enormous pile up of traffic along the motorway.

To make matters worse, the endless rain seemed to be carrying on until the next week. John particularly didn't like wandering around in the rain, especially with a dead body within a small radius of him. Brilliant. Just brilliant. He heard Pete's sighs and bickering on the phone at the back of the car and thought it wasn't best to talk much, given his massive and unstoppable gob.

"That's our fourth murder," Jack began as he tried steering around some cars that finally gave a clear path towards the crime scene. "Didn't someone say they were going to jump into the Time Vortex to stop that fourth murder?" John let out a winding sigh.

"If only we knew the behaviour of the murders," he murmured, bringing his head back into the headrest. Then he looked back at Jack. "Are you sure you've checked all the evidence? There must be a link. There just _has _to be a link between the murders. Maybe you're missing something."

"Do you always do that?" Jack demanded with an impatient and annoyed air. "The continuous fire of questions and remarks? It's pissing me off." John shrunk back in his seat, but he wasn't going to back down.

"Jack, I'm trying to _help_ you," he explained very slowly, uttering each syllable crystal clearly. Jack sighed.

"Sorry, sorry," he muttered, raising a hand from the wheel in surrender. "I've been trying to get my head around this case and I'm getting nothing whilst this damn murderer is progressing." The whole car was silent with the exception of Pete's now shouting voice lingering at the back.

"Let me help," John declared.

"What? No, John. I'm fine with my team working on the case," Jack assured as nicely as possible, but John shook his head.

"I'm worth ten times the number of people in your team," he said rather smugly that made Jack scoff.

"I'll think about it" was all Jack said.

The black Torchwood SUV approached an area by the side of the motorway that was surrounded by white police tape. John was the first to get out, clearly keen to investigate the scene, but groaned when, for a moment, he totally forgot about the rain and was greeted by London's torrential downpour. In a feeble attempt to try and keep dry, he lifted his brown trench coat collar and covered the lower portion of his face. He grumbled as his once spiky hair began to be plastered to his face. At least the coat kept his suit dry. But to John's bemusement, it seemed customary that Torchwood operatives didn't have umbrellas as Jack, along with a few other operatives from forensics, came out of the SUV in his black Torchwood issue uniform, seemingly oblivious of the rain. However, Pete seemed to be the big exception when he was the last to come out after having his door opened by his secretary who was holding up an umbrella for him.

Jack caught up with John and the two looked at one another as they noticed the white tent just over the motorway barrier that was presumably where the dead body was found.

"This isn't for the faint-hearted," Jack warned.

"Oh, I'm a tough cookie," John replied, earning an almost flirty smile from Jack.

He rolled his eyes as a few police men parted to give him way. John bobbed under the police tape, walked a few paces and clambered over the low steel barrier with Jack in tow. They stopped outside the tent as a few white uniformed and masked operatives from forensics dispersed from the area. John held his breath as he entered the tent and discovered the still form of a once beautiful and young woman still clothed and wet from the rain. It was evident all the colour left her skin and now she resembled a ghost. She looked so peaceful in her slumber, but John knew this woman was kidnapped and killed. He felt the concoction of hormones flooding up inside him as he gritted his teeth in anger and despair. _This woman was kidnapped and killed. _

"Her name's Sophia Walker." John jumped almost a meter in the air at the sudden break in silence. He looked behind him at the source of the new voice and noticed an average sized, dark brown haired man clad in the usual black Torchwood uniform. "She's twenty six, resides in West London with her fiancée who goes by the name "George Marshall". Graduated from Imperial College with a Masters degree in sciences three years ago. Worked as a researcher for HIV before she got killed. I'd say she was pretty happy because judging by this…" He crouched by the dead body and picked up it's hand, revealing a fourteen carat silver gold ring on the woman's ring finger. "She's engaged, as Tosh didn't find any records or paperwork regarding any marriages in churches in England. Her body, like the other three victim's, showed no signs of struggle." Then he proceeded to lift the woman's eyelid. "Victim's eyes appear glassy. Obviously pupils are dilated." He gently but firmly pushed down on the woman's chest and water seeped out from her open mouth. "Definitely died by drowning. But I'll take her in for an autopsy as usual to get some more insight." He finished off. He looked up at a surprised John from his crouching position and gave a wry smile. "You must be that John bloke everyone's been talking about at Torchwood. I'm Owen Harper. Nice to meet you."

"Owen Harper? The human who can use a Singularity Scalpel? _That _Owen Harper?" John exclaimed. Owen stared at this man for a moment to process what he just said and slowly nodded. He looked at Jack for help, but he was laughing at the little scene. Owen found his hand being shook. "Pleasure to meet ya, Owen Harper," John began enthusiastically. "I must say, that was some really good deducting from a medic. Jack's lucky to have you on his team."

Owen beamed. He never got much praise from other people and took this opportunity to try being friendly – something he hardly did thanks to his overweening ego. Jack noticed Owen's surprisingly quiet nature. John was certainly taking a shine to Owen and it made him grin.

"Can I get someone to get this body back to base please?" Owen called out from the tent. Three white uniformed men entered the tent and John, Jack and Owen took this as a sign to get out into the dreaded rain. Jack looked up and huffed.

"Can't England get some better weather for once? These grey skies are making me depressed," he joked.

"You're SADs" Owen stated, only to receive a glare from his boss.

"I'm sorry, could you say that again?" Jack warned slowly.

"Seasonal Affective Disorder, Jack," John cut in. "It's when the weather changes people's moods." Then he shook his head. "Blimey, don't they teach you _anything _in school?" Owen stifled a snigger as Jack rolled his eyes.

"I appreciate if you still want to play around in the rain, but I have a wife to please tonight and it would be really nice if you got this body back to base as soon as possible and finish this bloody case," Pete suddenly called out. The three men rolled their eyes at Pete as they huddled in the rain.

"What are the chances that this woman is a victim of Case 132?" Jack muttered.

"Eighty nine percent," Owen replied. John blinked.

"That's a bit precise, don't you think?" he quipped.

"Oh, I assure you this is the work of the same murderer," Owen stated, only for John to let out a winding sigh. "I've investigated lots of bodies in my years with Torchwood and Jack and can tell just by the dead person's eyes whether they've been killed by the same murderer. This is _nothing _compared to what I've encountered."

"She was just an innocent woman who helped people's lives. Who would do such a thing?" Jack breathed.

"An insane man. That's for sure. A heartless, cold and _disgusting _primitive ape," John spat out, his anger and hatred being induced by Donna's mannerisms. Then he glared at Jack with defiant eyes. "I'm helping out in this case, like it or not, Jack." Jack could only heave a sigh.

"Fine," he surrendered. "You know, I've never had a colleague describe a human as an "ape"." He forced a chuckled.

"Yeah, sorry that was too nice," John muttered offhandedly, making Jack halt at what was just said.

"I'll give you a quick briefing when we get back to the base," Jack added, starting to walk back to the SUV with Owen in tow. "Oh, and you better be just as good as you say. Can't have any more dead weight in on this investigation." John grinned at that as the rain seemed to diminish his pompous ego and he trudged back to the SUV.

**…**

Adam Mitchell loosened his tie as he knocked three times on the front door. There was no answer and he peered at his watch. It was only 2:34pm and he sighed. Wrong time to go knock on his door… He tramped down the front porch stairs and glared up, ignorant of the rain beating at his face, at the upstairs windows expecting the usual flicker of curtains. Nothing. He certainly wasn't in. Who'd be home at 2:34pm on a weekday? It's simple detective work, how could he be so stupid? Feeling rather ashamed, Adam decided to come back in a few hours later.

**…**

"Case 132," Jack began as he tossed a thick yellow file onto the table in front of John. The part Time Lord hastily opened the file and peered at a few notes. "It began when a woman's body was found on the outskirts of west London in front of a warehouse on June 28 2007. Her cause of death…"

"Drowning," John finished, brow furrowing as he proceeded to read the file on the first murder.

"The following two murder victims both drowned to their deaths and now we have a fourth murder victim following the death," Jack stated. He took four pictures and stuck them onto a white board at the front of the room. He pointed at the first picture of the face of a dark skinned woman. Her closed eyes and slightly pale lips already indicated she was dead. These were autopsy photos. "This is the first victim. Her name's Lisa Hallett, she's twenty-eight years old, and a promising member of Torchwood. Sadly, the Torchwood 2.4 operatives couldn't make it to her in time." Jack scratched the back of his head. "Her body was found on a wasteland area east of London three days after her reported disappearance." John scanned some more paper work regarding Lisa Hallett. His jaw dropped the moment his eyes laid upon some new information.

"She's Ianto's…"

"Fiancée. Yes," Jack noted solemnly. "Poor guy… I heard they were together for quite a while. Refused to admit their love for each other until after saving her from a Cybernetics conversion factory."

"And no one even told me about this?" John wondered in concern. Jack shook his head.

"No one wants to talk about it in front of Ianto. The topic distresses him." John nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, that's perfectly reasonable." For that moment, he wondered what it would have been like if Rose was taken away from him. Sure, he loved her. But she had mixed feelings for him, and having her taken away from his life would send him over the edge… He _needed _her. Suddenly the thought of his former self crossed his mind and a new wave of despair hit him square in the heart. The thought of Donna's mind deteriorating as she carried the mind of a Time Lord spawned a new form of despair and hatred for himself. His mate was gone if it wasn't for him…

"John, are you listening?" Jack asked with slight impatience as John's head rapidly perked up. "I'm not pointing at pictures of dead bodies for no reason," he teased, trying to lighten the already glum mood.

"Sorry, sorry," he muttered, running a hand through his hair as he composed himself.

"The second murder happened exactly four months after the first," Jack began as he pointed at the second picture of a brunette woman, followed by a giant map of London. "Her body was found on a stretch of land just outside the Battersea power station. Her name's Charlotte Mason. She's a twenty-year-old student who attended King's College to study English Literature."

"She's only twenty years old?" John exclaimed. Jack gave a slow nod as John fell into another one of his moments of thought. Twenty years old. That's so young… nearly Rose's age… John gritted his teeth as he gestured for Jack to continue. He indicated the third picture of a fair skinned woman with blonde hair. Another young looking one, John thought.

"The third happened exactly three months after," Jack declared. "Grace Miller's body was found in a field next to a neighborhood in north London," he said, pointing a ruler at a point on the map. "She was like a child prodigy. Excelled in school and took a shine for music. Studied in the Royal College of Music and fell in love with another music student, Ollie Carter. She was a marvelous pianist," Jack trailed off, recalling a memory and smiling sadly. He cleared his throat as he proceeded to the final photo taken that day. "The fourth murder victim's body was found today. Owen confirmed she died by drowning during the autopsy half an hour ago. And then we started to find a pattern in this murders. Sophia Walker's body was found exactly two months after the third body was found."

"The time taken between each murder recedes by one month," John realised out loud, going through every possibility in his mind. He flicked through pages as Jack paced around the room. "Like some sort of countdown…"

"Exactly," Jack chimed. "But the question is: countdown to what?" Both men fell in a brief moment of silence.

"Quick question," John brought up, raising a hand like he was still in school. "Why aren't the police in on this? Torchwood deals with aliens – not that I don't want to help out or anything," he quickly added.

"Policies," Jack replied indifferently. "If the police can't solve a case for more than five months, they'd either decommission investigations or send it off to Torchwood depending on how serious the case is. The minute Torchwood got the case, my team got called in from Cardiff because a lot of operatives from this sector were transferred to Torchwood Five. I've got a few people running our base, but the sooner we get this case over and done with, the sooner I can go back because that Rift is a bitc-"

"Yes, we get the point," John cut in. He hummed in thought as he continued to read the rest of the files on Case 132 as Jack stared longingly at him, expecting some form of response regarding the situation.

"Well, we know the behaviour of these murders," John noted. "That means the next expected murder will be in a month's time."

"We should warn the public," Jack announced, only for John to shake his head.

"It will cause a stir. What if the killer _wants _us to be scared?" John objected. "Judging from what we know, he just plucks any woman from the crowd and drowns them three days later, then dumps their bodies in the most barren places. We're assuming he's doing a countdown through the most horrific way ever. That's gotta scream, _"You shall be afraid of me!"_"

"John, this is reckless," Jack muttered.

"I _won't _let anyone get killed," John declared with steel in his voice. He closed the filed and pushed it along the table towards Jack. "I've had enough. I'm not allowing any more deaths. You don't have to warn everyone because I'm not letting any woman get killed before you even warn the public." Jack sighed at John's very defiant and stubborn nature.

"And how are you gonna do that, huh?" Jack challenged as he watched the part Time Lord stand up from his chair and saunter towards the doors with the yellow file in his hands.

"Oh, I have a plan," John announced, opening the door with a smirk. Frankly, he had no clue.

**…**

The rain was starting to drench Adam's hair as he knocked impatiently on the front door, only to get no reply. He peered at his watch and frowned. 8:30pm. Surely he should be home. Consider work times and rush hour, he should be home by 8:30pm the latest. He knocked the door again, as if for luck. Nothing. He hastily crouched and peered through the letterbox.

"Mr. Ollie Carter?" Adam called out, trying to steal a glance inside to see if anyone stirred at his call. "Are you there, sir? … Ollie?" Nothing. "I'm here to discuss matters regarding Case 132. Are you there? I've been hired by MI5 to investigate the case. I just need your co operation."

Nothing.

His eyes narrowed as he brought himself back up and peered through the front windows. Something was awfully wrong… Adam instinctively bounded around the house and unlocked a side door. He jogged though an alley by the house into the open garden, edging towards the back door and peering through the window, only to find nothing. His hand shook the window and it slightly jiggled. He gave it a sharp jerk upwards and the back window eventually gave in to allow enough space for him to fit through. Before going in, he looked around. When he felt that no one nearby was watching him, he clambered through the window and landed in a rather untidy kitchen. He brushed his clothes before silently creeping past the hallway towards the living room, passing framed family photos and a certain picture of a young, pale skinned blonde woman engrossed in a hug with a rather handsome brown haired man. He craned his neck towards the living room where he found magazines stacked in jumbled piles around the coffee table with a one-man sofa placed behind facing a plasma screen TV. Adam looked up along the stairs and dared to take a step along the seemingly endless flight of stairs. The house was eerily silent, so he tried not to make a single noise. He noticed more framed photos hung along the walls the more he kept walking towards the upstairs landing. The first room he decided to check was the bedroom out of instinct. Slowly, he stretched out a hand and gently pushed the bedroom door away from him. What he didn't expect to find was a brown haired man lying unconscious in the middle of the bedroom surrounded by blood.

**…**

It was nearing the end of the day and John found himself greeting a few Torchwood operatives as he walked through the white corridors towards the locker room. He noticed Rose's locker untouched and assumed she was still working and decided to wait for her by the lobby. As he stepped into the white corridor, he clutched his duffel bag in one hand and hurried towards the lobby. But he didn't expect to see Jackie Tyler and certainly not Tony wandering the Torchwood building.

"Mum, it's Rose's boyfriend!" Tony beamed, waving an enthusiastic hand at the approaching man. John withdrew from the noun, but could help but greet the boy back.

"Hey, kiddo!" he cried out, ruffling Tony's blonde hair. "Now, I never thought I'd see _you_ here of all places."

"The baby sitter rang in and she said she was ill and me and Pete have reservations at some posh restaurant in central London," Jackie babbled. "Now I'm stuck with Pete _and_ 'im for the night!" she exclaimed, pointing a thumb at her son who gave the most innocent eyes a little mischievous boy could give. John grinned at that.

"I wish I could help, Jackie," John huffed. "But I'm getting my hands dirty with this new case at the moment... and on top of that, I gotta look out for Rose."

"Oh, where is she? Shouldn't she be with you?" Jackie wondered, but the part Time Lord sighed.

"She's still working. I'm actually waiting for her."

For once, Jackie studied him and almost felt sorry for the part Time Lord.

"C'mon. Let's wait for our lovers," she chuckled with a nod towards the café in the lobby. "Pete doesn't come down 'till after an hour and I've nothin' to do for a while, so let's have a break, yeah?"

John obliged with a feeble nod - partly because he dared not to bicker with Jackie Tyler. They approached the counter where Jackie offered to pay for John's drink. He insisted he was fine paying for his own drink until Jackie slapped him lightly (but surprisingly hard for him) on the arm. They settled on a sofa where they placed their drinks on the coffee table in front as Tony bounded by with a chocolate muffin.

"Eat that slowly," Jackie warned her son. "We're eatin' in around an hour and I don't wanna deal with a boy and his upset stomach." John suddenly laughed at that and the mother glared at him. "What?"

"I've always wondered how Rose coped with you," he quipped.

"And look at the fine woman she's turned out to be," Jackie intercepted. John couldn't argue with that as he took a hearty sip of herbal tea. He stole a glance at Tony who was already half way through his muffin. Blimey, does he eat _that _quickly? Apparently Rose begged to differ a few days ago. "So how are things with Rose? Are they getting better?"

"Yeah, I guess so," John replied indifferently. "We have little arguments, but nothing severe. I mean arguing over who's going into the bathroom is normal, right?"

Jackie burst out laughing. And then she realized something. "Not even a single _proper _argument?" Jackie asked.

"Jackie, I appreciate your advice. Excuse me if I understood wrongly, but are you seriously implying that I should try stir up an argument with your daughter?" John forced a laugh.

"That's not what I mean, silly," Jackie exclaimed, shaking her head. "All I'm tryin' to say is that you two can't keep bottlin' things up. No arguments mean nothin' has been said. John, I know this may sound crazy, but sometimes a good argument can be the best solution to let everythin' out."

"Jackie I can't risk everything," John muttered. "I can't even talk to her about _him_." He muttered. Jackie, being an understanding mother, knew who John was talking about and felt a wave of sorrow.

"Are you still sleepin' on her sofa?" she demanded.

"What? That's not even-"

"Are you sleepin' on her sofa?" Jackie repeated.

"… Yes."

"_Exactly_!" Jackie exclaimed as she took a sip of coffee. An awkward silence fell between the two except the sound of Tony kicking the table as he sat on the sofa swinging his short legs.

"Rose can be a bit… touchy," John began, breaking the silence that followed through. "Especially with what she's going through."

"Well, you can't just let her bottle her feelings forever!"

"…" John couldn't argue against that.

"I know this is tough, but you two need to move on," Jackie pressed. "The Doctor _wanted _you two to be together. And if you only have one life you say you have, you two better make it worth livin' for before it's too late. I know you two can make it. I _believe_ it _will _happen."

"You think?" John seriously wondered.

"Yes," Jackie confirmed. He stared hard at her for a moment and suddenly smiled.

"Maybe that's all I needed."

"Mummy, I need a wee…" Tony suddenly whined and Jackie rolled her eyes.

"Well, what are you sittin' there for?" she exclaimed flippantly before gesturing towards a grey door fifty meters away from them. "Men's toilets are over there." She expected the little boy to run there under the influence of his crying bladder, but her son just stared at her with wide eyes. "What? I can't go in there and help you!"

"Why?!" the little boy gasped.

"Tony," Jackie said calmly. "I'm a _woman_. I don't belong in the men's rooms," she explained slowly. "Besides, you don't need my help now. I'm sick of takin' you into the ladies rooms with that bloomin' janitor complainin' about you. You're old enough to do what it is you do in the bathroom. You just unzip you fly, then pull down your trousers and then-"

"I'll go with him," John stepped in before Tony began to flush red in embarrassment. He perched down to Tony's level and gave him a smile of reassurance. "Hey, soldier."

"Will you come with me?" he asked desperately. John nodded. Then he noticed Tony's look of utter nervousness.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Tony developed this uneasiness with men's toilets," Jackie chipped in. "He doesn't like it when…" she stopped to try find a decent way of describing what she was going to say. "Other _big _men are around when he does his business. That's why I used to accompany him." John pursed his lips in front of Tony as he tried to straighten his face at the amusing situation. Then he cleared his throat. He hoped to God this would work and pointed his head towards the grey doors that lead to the men's toilets.

"If we go in there… I'll show you mine if you show me yours," A grin tugged at the little boy's lips and he stifled a giggle before nodding petulantly. John bounded back up and gestured for the boy to follow him as they edged towards the men's rooms and stepped past the grey doors Jackie never set foot in. He would be _great _with kids, Jackie thought. Nah, too early to think about that…


	9. Rose Returns

**Note: **WOW, long time no write! I've only written up to Chapter 10 and I really should write _waaayyy _ahead... Whoops. Well, this is going to look fun! *Runs away into a cave*

Ehehe... This chapter title says it all.

Grrr... I'm no good at building up... I mean 9 chapters in and the London mystery is starting to unravel... This Case 132 stuff is just lingering, and I really need to do something about John and Rose, but I promise you it's getting to the part where it's gritty, whumpy with a dash of fluffy! I swear!

* * *

Chapter 9 – Rose Returns

John awoke to the smell of burning toast.

_Burning toast…_

His eyes suddenly widened and he flailed in his blankets and clumsily fell off the sofa in a heap on the floor with a loud _thud_. Rose rushed into the living room with a frown holding a plate of toast.

"What the hell?!" she exclaimed, staring at the sight of a semi naked part Time Lord splayed on her living room carpet. He noticed the plate she was holding and let out a relieved sigh.

"Right, you were making toast," he breathed. Then he forced a chuckle. "For a moment, I thought I was gonna have a stro- … no, don't worry." Rose scoffed at that as she walked back into the kitchen. John peeled himself from the floor and shivered at the draft, realizing the lack of clothing he had. Then he let out an almighty yawn and scowled.

"Blimey, you humans…" he muttered. "How can you sleep for an average of _eight _hours?"

"Because we aren't as superior as Time Lords?" Rose mildly put in over a mouthful of toast, making John laugh.

"Sleeping is such a waste of time when you could do so much more," he pouted, putting on a stray shirt at the end of the sofa and ambling towards the kitchen. "How can you cope lying down with your eyes closed and doing essentially nothing for hours?"

"Because we aren't as superior as Time Lords," Rose repeated with a smirk as she shoved a carton of milk to his chest to which he feebly took.

"Can't argue with that," he quipped, opening the fridge and placing the milk back in its respectful place. He sauntered by Rose and snatched a slice of toast from her plate.

"Oi!" Rose cried out as John gave her one of those very Doctor-y grins that made her die a little inside. She was really going to have to get used to that. He took a hearty munch of toast before settling by the dining table and peering out of the front windows and noticing the post man clutching various envelopes and shoving them into their letterbox.

"Yuck, more bills…" he murmured, staring at the small pile of letters by the front door in disgust.

"John, look on the bright side," Rose began as she buttered a piece of toast. "My parents paid off the mortgage for this apartment, so we won't have to worry about that. And my apartment hardly has carpets," she added, recalling their interesting conversation back on Sanctuary Base 6. John smiled at that – she remembered even after all those years that he wasn't keen on carpets. He glanced over the table and took the day's newspaper, turning to the crossword and grabbing a nearby pen. By the next four minutes, he had already worked out three quarters of the clues and he frowned.

"A flowery action in the past…" he murmured, biting at the top of his pen.

"John, where did you put the washin' liquid?" Rose asked.

"Under the sink," he offhandedly replied, sighing as he gave up and proceeded to the next clue of the crossword.

"Are the washin' up gloves under the sink, too?"

"Yup."

"Did you put the car shampoo in there as well?"

"Yup."

_"WOOF!"_

Instantly, John's head jerked up in a flash and he let go of the pen he'd gotten used to chew on for the last several minutes and it dropped on the table as a new wave of terror came onto him. He gaped at Rose, mouth hung open. "… Please tell me I'm smelling burnt toast." The universe begged to differ as a little brown furry creature bounded towards Rose, barking and panting. "What a shame…" he murmured as Rose gave him a weary smile.

"It's just for the next two days," Rose tried to reason. "Mum and dad are both workin' and Tony's at his mate's and we're the only ones free since it's our days off. And there's some cholera outbreak so the kennels are temporarily shut down until they decontaminate the place. We just look after her during the day until Tony comes back. It's the summer holidays and he'll be lookin' after the dog from then on." John sighed. He was really feeling the domestic vibes, but he never said he was liking it…

_"Woof! Woof!" _The little dog dashed towards John and stood on it's hind legs as it clawed John's pajama legs, tongue stuck out and panting. He couldn't help but smile and ruffle the animal's fur. Strange… that dog seemed familiar.

"What's it's name?" John wondered as he fed the dog a piece of toast. Surprisingly, it took a moment before Rose answered.

"… Rose."

"…"

John straightened his face, but pursing his lips really gave his true feelings away and Rose began to frown. He suddenly burst out laughing making the dog yelp.

"You're not supposed to laugh," Rose snapped, taking a swig of tea.

"The return of Rose the dog," John chimed. Rose rolled her eyes. "How come you never told me about Rose?"

"Because you'd start laughing like this!" Rose flippantly cried out.

"Blimey, she survived the Cybermen invasion? This universe is just getting better and better." Rose laughed as she took a dog leash from the worktop. She looked at him hesitantly.

"We're just lookin' after her for the weekend," she began. "You're okay with that?" John studied the situation for a moment before smiling.

"Guess it wouldn't hurt. And it's not like she's a cat," he added making Rose giggle.

"Good, 'cause we're takin' her for a walk," Rose replied, shoving the leash at John and dashing into the bedroom before giving him the chance to object. He just thanked the heavens it wasn't raining.

**…**

**[Eleven hours ago…]**

Adam stared at the sight in front of him in sheer terror.

"Ollie?!" he cried out, perching next to the limp body and giving it a sharp nudge. Then he started shaking it and it came to a point where his hands started soaking up in Ollie's blood along with the white bathrobe he was wearing. He studied the bedroom and noticed a trail of blood leading towards the en-suite bathroom. "Crap," Adam muttered, as he made sure not to wipe any blood on his clothes and dashed for the bathroom instead and washed his hands. He grabbed a nearby towel and dashed back into the bedroom, nearly tripping over a pile of stray clothes and hangers as he practically dragged Ollie's body across the bedroom. _This shouldn't be happening. He's not supposed to be… _Adam's heart skipped a beat as he tried to shake off a pile of dreadful conclusions in his mind. He thanked the heavens when he suddenly heard muffled groaning below him. He looked down and noticed Ollie's head loll to one side and Adam tried to shush him as he gently dragged Ollie onto the bed as he made a trail of blood in his wake. The significant amount of blood trailing down his face induced more worry and Adam could do nothing but press the towel against the back of his head for the meantime. From that action, Ollie gasped in pain and gritted his teeth. He eventually opened his mouth to make out words, but Adam shushed him again. "Don't talk and waste energy," he demanded. "You've just hit your head."

"S… slipped in… in the b… bathroom," Ollie managed to physically let out, almost laughing at what just happened to him, but turning into a groan of anguish. "Head… hurts…"

"Yeah, thanks for the info," Adam muttered. "Now please shut up whilst I try to treat your wound." Not listening, Ollie chuckled.

"… thanks…"

He was placed on his bed as Adam legged it back into the bathroom. He heard the sound of cluttering from his bathroom as Adam searched frantically inside a cupboard. For the first time, he studied the bathroom and noticed a pool of blood at the foot of the shower enclosure. I didn't even require a detective to guess what happened to Ollie. Figures… more than a third of bathroom accidents happen in the shower… At once, Adam snapped back to concentration as he raced back into the bedroom where he found Ollie lying there on his bed, unconscious. Thankfully, his head wound was treatable, but Adam glanced at the red stains smeared across the whole room. He was going to have a fun time cleaning…

**…**

John waited outside the apartment, holding the life out of the leash as Rose the dog began whining as she tried to pull away from John. He began to worry if the dog was starting to strangle itself with the leash. "Rose, hurry up. I think the dog is trying to kill itself," John called out, only to hear a muffled _"Don't tell me to hurry up!" _from behind the closed front door. He rolled his eyes and studied himself for the first time. John decided to go casual that day and sported a pair of blue jeans, a light green polo shirt and a zip up grey hoody. Of course, being who was, he wore a pair of black _Converse _to top it all off. You can't go wrong with a pair of _Converse_... Right? He heard the front door open and Rose appeared wearing a pair of three quarter length jeans and a skinny black and white top. She gaped at him and a look of utter nervousness and sheer terror flashed his facial features.

"Rassilon," he swore. "It's the green shirt isn't it?" He noticed a look of confusion on Rose's.

"John."

"The green clashes with the grey hoody, doesn't it?" John babbled, taking another look at himself. Rose burst out laughing and poked him.

"You look fine, John. I was just about to say your fashion sense isn't as bad as how you described it back then," she chided. "I was scared to leave you to choose your outfit in case you might have chosen something…" she paused for a moment, thinking of a less offending word. "Extravagant." John arched a brow. "But seriously," Rose began. "You look great." Deep inside, she preferred the word _"fit"_. She really preferred the casual let out a relieved sigh and smiled.

"Yeah?"

"Yup," she replied, popping the "p" like how he always does it.

_"WOOF!"_ John and Rose stared at the desperate dog and burst out laughing before heading out.

**…**

By now, Pete should have gotten used to every single Torchwood operative stopping and saluting him every time they would walk towards him along corridors. But now he knew exactly how the Doctor and John felt. He could get used to being called "sir", but this was just getting over the top. Instead of showing how he truly felt towards these - let's face it - respectful actions, he just nodded and smiled and tended to drop a few hints to try and stop with the saluting. Then he noticed a flash of ginger.

"Amelia!" he beamed, making the tall skinny girl halt in her tracks. "Just the person I need."

"And a good morning to you, Mr. Pete Tyler," The Scottish girl greeted, talking a sip of coffee.

"Yes, good morning," Pete began hurriedly. "Listen, I need you to do a favor for me."

"Yeah, I should be fine to do it as soo as possible. I'm doing some light works today," she lied as she searched her bag for her ID.

Then it came.

"It's for John."

As if the name triggered some sort of pause, she stopped what she was doing. Oh, God, what was it this time? Was there another grenade? Did he blow up another room? Did he let out some alien into the world? Did he stir up another intergalactic feud? Did he cause a possible alien invasion? Is she going to have to write up more paper work for officials just so Pete can save John's career? No scrap that. He found a grenade, blew up a room, let loose an alien that caused a feud and now there's going to be an alien invasion, she thought. And she's going to have to write up paper work to cover up for what he did. "I'm all ears," she found herself saying as she forced a smile at Pete.

"Could you write some transfer papers?" Pete meekly asked. "I have a list of items kept in other Torchwood bases around the world and John needs them to start the Sonic Screwdriver project," he said, producing the piece of paper John wrote down on a few days ago. Amy's jaw dropped as stared at her boss, feeling as if she stressed for nothing. Was it really nothing?

"You'll have the transfer papers done by this afternoon," she said too calmly to be sane. Pete smiled at that.

"Thanks, Amy. You're a star." He began to make his way towards the elevators. He should really go easy on her.

**…**

Ollie Carter woke up to the sound of scrubbing from the en-suite bathroom. Curiosity overriding him, he brought himself up to his elbows to take a glance at what was going on, only to collapse back on his bed and let out a groan. His head throbbed and he reached a hand to the back of his head, realizing it had been cleaned and covered with some sort of dressing. He called out. "Hello?" The scrubbing stopped and a brown haired man sauntered out of the bathroom holding a towel and giving Ollie a weary smile.

"I came to discuss some important matters and find you unconscious in your own bedroom. You're lucky I managed to sneak in through the window and find you in time," Adam chuckled. He dried his hands and tossed the towel at the foot of the bed and rolled down his sleeves. "How's the head?"

"Splendid." Ollie murmured, staring blankly at the ceiling. "You should have just left me to bleed to death," Adam stared at the man on the bed.

"… I'm sorry?"

"You heard me," Ollie muttered, scrunching his fists. "You should have left me to die."

"May I ask why?" Adam wondered seriously.

"Shouldn't you already know? Shouldn't _everybody _know?" Ollie demanded.

"It's not too harmful to say," Adam replied indifferently with a shrug.

"Fine. It's Grace," He snapped. "I can't keep living my life going everywhere and seeing her face." Adam slowly nodded his head and noticed Ollie fighting back some unshed tears.

"Is that it?" he the MI5 agent tried.

"Is that it?!" Ollie cried out. "In case you didn't know, I _loved _Grace. Ever since she disappeared and they found her dead, my life's just been a mess. The bloody press or that damned Torchwood are always after me for answers…" he trailed off and suddenly frowned. "Hold on… who the hell are you?" Adam looked taken aback.

"I'm not the press if y-"

"Answer my question." Ollie demanded, using every ounce of strength in him to push off from the bed. "You better not be a bloody journalist. Why the hell am I even talking to you?!" He pushed himself off his bed and almost stumbled to the floor if it weren't for the bedside table he'd managed to cling onto.

"Ollie, just l-"

"How do you know my name and where I live?!" He hollered, edging closer towards Adam.

"Ollie, I work with MI5!" Adam declared out loud. "I'm working on the killer who murdered your girlfriend as well as three other woman who were killed. I just need-"

"Save it," Ollie snarled. "Just get out and stay away." Adam stared long and hard at the man before heaving a sigh and nodding. He grabbed his black coat and shrugged it on before walking out of the bedroom. Ollie watched the man leave as he steadied his already uneven breathing.

"She said she was sorry," Adam suddenly announced.

"What?"

"Grace. She said she was sorry for selling the necklace because she needed university funds."

"She'd been banging on about getting into that Royal College of Music," Ollie mumbled. "She should have told me she was short on money…" Then his eyes widened. "Wait, how did you know?" Adam was already in the hallway approaching the stairs.

"I told you," he began. "I work for MI5 and we need help for the investigation." He proceeded down the stairs and counted. After exactly four steps along the staircase, he heard a sudden call from the bedroom.

"Wait."

Adam smiled as he stopped and headed back upstairs.

**…**

"John, I don't think dogs can climb trees…" Rose watched as John practically hurled motivational words at Rose the dog to climb a tall tree thanks to him throwing the ball too high. He stopped for a moment.

"You're right, dogs haven't evolved that far yet in Earth's timeline…" he muttered, and sighed. He looked at the dog with a sympathetic smile. "Sorry, buddy. Looks like your ball's stuck up there."

_"WOOF!"_

"Yes, I promise to buy you a new one."

_"WOOF!"_

"Yeah, I'll get one by tomorrow."

_"WOOF!"_

"Alright! I'll get a red one!"

Rose could only stare at the non-sensical conversation in front of her. "That's it. I am one billion percent done with you," she declared and John gave a feeble shrug.

"I can teach you how to speak dog. If you want," he supposed.

"A billion. _And one_ percent done." She finished off, smirking. "C'mon, we need to cook dinner." As if on cue, John felt his stomach rumble.

Darkness had already crept up in the sky and Rose and John sauntered through an alleyway in silence, Rose the dog leading the way. John gazed up at the sky and sighed. "Blimey, Torajii is shining bright." Rose looked at him, totally confused.

"What?" she boggled. They stopped for a moment as John silently chuckled and he pointed up at the sky.

"Torajii. The sentient star of the Torajii system," he urged. "You can see it from here. Mind you, you wouldn't wanna go near that star." John recalled a previous memory with a certain star...

"Yeah?"

"Yup," he replied, popping the "p".

"Wha's that star?" she asked, randomly pointing at a white dot in the sky.

"Pliny. Parent star of the planet Ta – remember planet Ta?"

"Space pirates?" she tried to remember, smiling at the memory, despite nearly being crush in rock crusher machine if it weren't for the Doctor and trading a banana in order to save her.

"Yeah…" he trailed off.

"Wha's that one?" Rose began, pointing at another portion of the sky. He followed her finger.

"Ah, that's the group of stars that make Messier 13."

"And that?"

"The Delta 3 moon. Wow, you can see it from here, too."

"That one?"

"Tetrapyriarbus. Home of the Tetraps. Quite the bashful types," John murmured, recalling a memory.

"That?"

"Mondaran."

"And that?"

"Tenten 10."

"Cool name." Rose quipped, looking at the sky in awe. "What about that?"

"Varnicon."

"Oh, how about that one?"

"New New Canada."

"_What?!_" Rose exclaimed with wide eyes. "You're kiddin' me right?"

"No, that was just a planet I made up." John fobbed off. "Can we go home and eat?" Rose suddenly realized what he just said.

"Oh God, sorry," she laughed. "This seemed more than just a _"walk"_. Sorry for dragging you along with this."

"No, it's fine," John reassure as he was nearly by the dog. "It was about time I had some fresh air." A long silence ensued and they walked along the pavement, looking at their surroundings to occupy time until they reached the apartment. John scratched the back of his head, and hesitated before speaking. "Rose?"

"Yeah?" she gazed back at him with those beautiful green eyes. He stopped for a brief moment, trying to string some sentences together.

"I was just wondering. I mean I hope it won't be inconvenient if –"

"Spill the beans," Rose pressed, grinning. John just stared at her for a moment.

"Er, do you want to um… you know…" he stammered. "Have… dinner with me?" Rose arched a brow. "Not dinner as in tonight's dinner, of _course _we're having dinner tonight. I mean dinner as in a date."

"…" It took a moment for John to process what he'd just said and his eyes widened.

"Holy mother of Gallifrey," he gasped. "I didn't mean, _"date"_, of course I didn't mean that. I meant a friendly dinner." Rose watched in amusement as John slowly turned red with every word he uttered from his mouth. So romantic. "Oh, forget everything I ju-"

"Sure, I'd be happy to have dinner with you," Rose replied simply.

"What?" he boggled, completely swept away by that response.

"How about Friday night? We're both free the next day anyway."

"…" John stared unblinkingly. "Yeah," he lamely replied, totally oblivious that Rose the dog was tugging at her leash and dragging him slightly away. Rose giggled as she took his hand and removed the leash from it and held it in her other hand. They continued walking home, Rose hesitating a moment before resting her head on his chest. John had that silly grin plastered on his face.


	10. Life of Lies

**Note: **Peter Capaldi! I shall throw confetti for the twelfth actor to play the Doctor. I'm rather happy for him and pleased he was chosen. And like John Barrowman said - "he's Scottish. Can't go wrong:)" I'm certainly looking forward to his performance in Doctor Who.

On a side note, I hope you're all enjoying this story so far despite my lame attempt to build up... Ahaha, I swear, I'll make something good happen in future chapters. But in the meantime, we'll have some John/Rose relationship "stuff". It's about time I reflect on them a bit more, right?

* * *

Chapter 10 - Life of Lies

_"Woof, Woof!"_

John found himself covered in slobber as Rose the dog continuously licked his face. He squinted to gain more focus and peered at the living room clock and sighed. "Dammit, Rose. It's 4:00am," he grumbled, gently shoving the dog towards the edge of the sofa as he wrapped his upper half with the duvet. Rose started whining and a wave of guilt hit John. "Okay, I'm sorry," he murmured from under the covers, trying to clear his mind and sleep. But she wouldn't stop whining. Something was wrong. Was she hungry?

_"DOCTOR!"_

The sudden blood-curdling scream from the apartment bedroom made John yelp and fall off the sofa - he seriously wondered how many times he did that since he started living in this new universe. But his attention tore to the bedroom. Without bothering to put on a shirt, he bolted straight across the living room and burst through Rose's bedroom door in a flurry. There she was, her upper body upright from sleeping position with an arm outstretched as if reaching for something. Or _someone_… Her tear stricken face already indicated the answer to the sole question lying in John's mind for that brief moment. He wondered if Rose knew he was standing a meter away from her as she stared aimlessly at the space in front of her, not looking up to him upon entry. "Rose?" John feebly called out. "Rose," he repeated with a bit more steal in his voice, as she didn't respond the first time. Suddenly, she erupted into tears, drawing her knees towards her body as she wrapped her arms around her legs and just wept. Upon instinct, John rushed to her and wrapped his arms in an embrace to which he felt her tense a bit, but relaxed after a few moments' pause.

"Oh, John," she gasped, uncurling from herself and crying into his bare shoulders. She forced a laugh. "You shouldn't be seeing me like this." John sighed as he rubbed comforting circles around her back. He frowned slightly, realising how wet with tears his shoulder was becoming in such a short amount of time. Silence ensued with the exception of the constant panting of Rose the dog who was now by the side of the bed, staring at the two with large brown orbs. "Sorry," Rose muttered. "Didn't mean to wake you."

"No, it's okay," John reassured. "The dog woke me up before anything happened," he whinged, giving a pointed stare at the little dog now on the bed. Rose eventually lifted her head from his shoulder and sniffed, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her pyjama top.

"Did you… Did you hear…"

John sadly nodded before she even finished off her question. "It's okay, I understand what you're going through," he said with a wry smile.

"I can't just forget him, John," Rose sobbed. "How can I be charmed of this life knowin' he's out there?"

"I'm feeling the exact same thing, Rose," John reassured. "You're not alone on this one."

"You should have seen his face when he left me with you at Bad Wolf Bay," she whispered. "I can tell he looked so sad…" John paused in thought, still holding her in his embrace.

"We share the same thoughts, am I right?" he began, looking at Rose. She nodded. "Well, I know for a fact that he chose to leave you to live a better life because _he loves you_. And so do I," he put in. Rose nodded again, despite hearing the exact same thing again from him _and _her mother. John hummed. "I hope this can be of reassurance, but there was a reason he gave us that piece of the TARDIS. He wanted us to travel the stars for the rest of our lives, Rose - make worth of that one life we both have by doing what we absolutely love. Together." John arched a brow. He'd never been _this _open before.

"That's what was goin' through his mind all along?" she wondered. Studying his solemn features. He nodded, saying nothing in return. Another brief moment of silence followed through and Rose hesitated before speaking. "I suppose he'll be alright since he's got Donna," she noted – not that she felt jealous. They were just mates. At the mention of her name, Rose felt John's form tense and she looked up at his face, sadness evident in those eyes. "He's alright, right?" Rose tried again, only for John to tear his gaze from her and sigh.

"I'm gonna be straight with you, Rose, because if we're going to spend the rest of our lives together, we're not going to start off with unstable foundations," he spoke gravely. He cleared his throat and stared hard into her eyes. "Donna had to forget him."

"What?" she croaked.

"It's plain simple, Rose. Humans can't handle the mind of a Time Lord – it's too much to control, let alone live with," John declared. Rose's eyes widened at an oncoming dreadful thought.

"You don't mean… Donna… she…" Rose stammered, unable to even say that awful verb. But John let out a bitter chuckle and shook his head.

"She didn't die, if that's what you were thinking about," he replied in answer to the incomplete question.

"Then she _is _alright?" Rose pressed on, only for John to give a sad smile.

"Yeah," he summarised. "She's alive and breathing and eating and walking and sleeping like what you humans always do. Without any memory of me. I wiped her mind of ay memory of me in order to preserve her human mind." There was a brief silence and John braced himself for the oncoming tears.

"So he's alone?" Rose choked out, trying to get to the point.

"… Yes."

"He knew what was going to happen to Donna and still left me here with you. He knew he was going to be all alone…" Rose murmured.

"Yes." John replied coldly.

"He would kill himself if that happened. After everything that had happened in those last few years," Rose stated.

"Yes he would." Rose stared in utter shock at what John said. "But he didn't."

"How do you know?" she retorted, tearing her gaze from John.

"Because we share the same thoughts," he simply replied. "What's keeping him alive is the tiny glimmer of happiness knowing that you are still alive and safe with, let's face it, the second best man in every universe," he said with a smug smile. "In case you were wondering, that's me," he quickly added in to make Rose roll her eyes at him. "And I'm technically still him."

"But what about Donna?" she challenged. "What happened to having a mate?"

"Rose, I don't want to stand over any more graves," John stated resentfully. It was the absolute truth and Rose really couldn't argue against that dreadful truth. They sat there in silence before Rose looked back at him and studied his hard facial expression. Any moment sooner and John would have broken down. They've learnt enough in the past hour. Rose's nose crinkled at the sudden whiff of a putrid smell looming in from outside the bedroom.

"Oh God," she cried out, covering her nose with the collar of her pyjama top as the smell became stronger. Having a more heightened sense of smell thanks to his Time Lord genes, John blanched, almost crying as the dog scampered into the bedroom. Oh no…

"I thought you said the dog was potty trained!" John exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at the animal.

"It's not a human baby!" Rose snapped back, throwing the duvet away from her and making a run for it. "Oh God, you're cleaning up the poo," she muttered as she dashed out of the bedroom and retreated into the bathroom where John heard the extractor fans turn on. He glared at the dog that sat there with innocent eyes, wagging her tail. Well, damn…

**…**

After having a theory proved wrong, Jack Harkness grumbled and slumped on his chair. He stared aimlessly at the various pictures of crime scenes, evidences and dead bodies pinned across his room and flicked through that familiar yellow file for the umpteenth time that day. It was really a race against time. In just less than three weeks, the next disappearance would occur… This case was certainly driving him up the wall.

"Stupid Case 132," he grumbled, pushing the file across the table and resting his feet on his desk. He heard three knocks on his door and it opened as a man with dark brown hair hastily walked in with two cups of coffee. "Ianto! Lookin' good in the suit as always," Jack remarked with a flirtatious grin.

"Thank you, Jack," Ianto smiled, handing him a cup as Jack winked. Ianto noticed the pictures pinned across the room as well as various papers on Case 132 scattered all over the desk and he tensed his shoulders. Jack noticed this and instantly collected the papers, coughing as if trying to cover it up. "It's okay," Ianto insisted with a forced smile.

"Ianto, I'm _really_ sorry," Jack let out, almost wanting to cry for him.

"Jack, It's okay," Ianto echoed, feeling a little distressed. There was an awkward silence before Jack thought it was best to make a move.

"If you need to talk-"

"I'll come to you, yes," Ianto finished off. Eventually, Jack took a sip of coffee and let out a satisfying noise.

"Now _that _is a good cup of coffee," he beamed, taking another hearty gulp. "Did you make this?" Ianto nodded as they engaged in an interestingly long conversation on coffee.

**…**

It was that time of the day again where John found himself walking the dog with Rose by his side. Being dressed in jackets with collars up and hats certainly proved helpful to avoid any photographers at that time. They certainly blended in with the crowd. As the dog brought the two into a local park, John and Rose eased a little. They weren't feeling the effort to play fetch and sat by a bench almost secluded from most people.

"John, there's something I've been meaning to tell you," Rose murmured, watching the dog chase it's tail. John tensed up. How could he be so damn stupid?! She's going to say she doesn't love him anymore. Throughout the years in this universe without him, she'd already found someone. But why would she agree to go to dinner with him? Was it out of sympathy? No, she wanted to tell him during dinner, that was it and she got scared and had to tell him now. Or maybe she misinterpreted it differently and assumed it wasn't some sort of date. No…

"What is it?" he muttered, trying his utter best not to show any signs of anger.

"Thanks for this morning."

"…" John blinked and stared hard at the ground. "What did I do this morning? Oh… cleaning the dog poo wasn't exactly hard…" Rose laughed and bumped him on the arm with hers.

"No, silly! For reassuring me about _him_ and letting things out again. I'm sure -despite losing Donna- that he'll find someone. It always happens," she added with a genuine smile. "But clearing the dog poo scored some more brownie points." John grinned and threw his arms up in the air.

"Score!" He let out a long, winding sigh of relief. He really stressed out for nothing in those last few minutes. He glanced at Rose the dog and arched a brow. "You know, for a tiny dog, Rose makes one hell of a stink bomb…"

"Can we not call her "Rose"?" Rose pleaded. "Between you and me I mean." John giggled and eventually nodded.

"Kairi."

"What?" Rose boggled and frowned. "How about Lily?" John shook his head.

"Too flowery and human. Betty."

"Ew… Mary."

"May."

"Annabel."

"Sally."

"Christina."

"Bob."

"Judith- _What?!_" Rose exclaimed. John shrugged.

"Worth a try," he noted with the most stupid grin. He looked at the dog that was now clinging onto his left leg and looking at him with desperate eyes.

"I think she wants to play fetch," Rose thought as she ruffled the dog's fur.

"Oh, look what I got," John said more directly to the dog. At that moment, John's eyes glinted and he pulled out a shiny red ball from his inner jacket pocket.

_"WOOF!"_

"It's red like I promised," he said in return with a smirk. And with that, the dog leaned back on its front paws, wagging her tail and expecting John to lob the ball across the park. As promised, he hurled the object as far he could and the dog dashed for it, her barking fading as she ran further away. John fell out of trance when the sound of Rose's mobile pierced the calm environment. He glanced back at her in curiosity, but didn't expect her to sigh.

"It's my dad," she murmured, holding up her phone. If Pete ever called them on their day off, it always required a trip to Canary Wharf. It was John's turn to sigh.

**…**

"John, these are your paper work, birth certificate, passport, IDs, driving licenses for cars and motorbikes," Pete declared. "You've been added into school records and we had to sneak in your identity into the Harvard system. It was pretty tough, but my men can handle anything. Certificates of your qualifications are in the second file – don't lose those. Basically, you're whole history has been sorted. Oh, and here are you wages for this month," he added, producing a slip of paper to John. John continued staring idly at the envelope, frowning as he slowly took out the contents and studied what was essentially his "life" on a bunch of paper. It was so much easier with the psychic paper… Frankly, it was actually starting to get on his nerves – being someone he isn't, living a life according to some back-story, having Earth qualifications for goodness sake! His shoulders tensed and Rose noticed that. She looked at her father and gestured with her head to leave them be. At once, he understood and jumped in mock shock.

"Oh, will you look at that?" Pete exclaimed, whipping out his phone. "I've got a meeting with the board. I'm really sorry, but I gotta go." And with that, Pete nervously scampered out of his office. "Lock the door when you go out, will ya?"

"Dad," Rose warned only for him to raise his hands in surrender and shuffle into the hallway. When the office was silent and Rose felt the tension was beginning to wear thin, she placed her hand on John's shoulder. "It's gonna be okay."

John suddenly flipped out. "Okay?! Rose, I'm living a life of _lies _here!" he cried out, throwing his hands up in the air and running them through his hair. "Why can't this universe accept me for who I am? That's the problem with you humans," he rambled. "You cover things up because you don't want other people to know. Typical! I should have known," he spat out.

"For your information," Rose began with an air of annoyance. "_You're_ part human," she interjected, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"Sometimes I wish I wasn't," he retorted, crossing his arms.

"You know what? Sometimes I wish you weren't as well," Rose snapped. "I've been patient with you, coped with your new traits and accepted you for who you are and you really don't see it, don't you?" She went towards her chair and picked up her jacket. "I _really _thought we'd work out, but I can see it won't work from a mile away. And to put it in _your _terms, I can see it not working out from a _billion _light years away." John stared in utter shock and soon a new wave of anger flowed through him.

"You _still _call me "John"!" he exclaimed. "How could you accept me and still call me by a made up name? That's blatantly obvious you can't accept me for who I am."

"You're not exactly the Doctor!" Rose replied angrily. "You're not swanning off savin' universes. You're just makin' sonic screwdrivers and lookin' at alien objects in your fancy little lab coat!"

"Maybe I'm just not that good enough for you. Look at _Rose Tyler_!" he mocked. "Daughter of _millionaire_, Pete Tyler. You don't deserve me! What a shame I'm not the Doctor!" He shouted flippantly. John beat Rose to it before she got the chance to open her mouth. "Actually, _I _don't deserve you. Heck, I'm part Time Lord. I'm way more superior than you primitive _apes_," he spat out. Rose glared at him with hard eyes, trying as best as humanly possible not to show any hint that she was about to break to and cry. Instead, she stormed out of the office biting her lip.

"Lock the door when you go out, will ya?!" she shouted from the hallway until John didn't hear her footsteps. The office fell silent once more. He suddenly found himself bursting into tears, lowering onto a nearby seat and burying his head into his hands. A lump formed in his throat as he began spluttering. He never experienced this feeling before… In fact, he never cried _this _much in his whole entire life – and that said something. Maybe it was the hormones…

"Rassilon!" he swore, slamming his fist on the table before slumping on the table so his whole face was facing against the desk. Tears began to dampen his paper work laid on the table, but he really didn't give a damn. He continuously thumped his head. Did he just throw away the chance to spend the rest of his life with the woman he loved?

**…**

Rose Tyler stormed into her old bedroom in the Tyler mansion and threw herself onto her bed, burying her head under her pillows and sobbing like a teenager. Jackie silently and hesitantly appeared by the doorway.

"Go away," Rose warned, her voice muffled in the bed sheets and pillows.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I can't hear you," Jackie gently replied, sitting on the bed and stroking her daughter's hair. Rose only let out a dramatic sigh followed by an annoyed groan. "What's he done this time? You never run into your mother and father's mansion cryin' unless somethin' has happened, so don't say _"it's nothin'" _because I've known you for twenty two years to tell if you're not okay." Rose looked up at her mother with red and swollen eyes.

"I screwed up, mum," Rose whined. "I should have known John wasn't gonna deal with his new identity nicely and I just got so annoyed and snapped and he got so angry." She wiped her eyes with her sleeve has groaned before throwing herself back on her pillows.

"Rose, I'm sure he'll understand," Jackie reasoned.

"He said I didn't deserve him, mum!" she choked out. "He was _so _angry and I didn't know what to do…" Jackie seriously wondered how she was still able to hear her daughter talking into her pillow.

"Sweetheart, what did'ya do?"

"I stormed out. I didn't wanna say anymore," Rose mumbled.

"Good."

"What?" Rose instantly shot up, nearly head butting her mother in the face.

"I said _good_," Jackie simply replied. "You were wise to leave before it got outta hand." Rose sniffed.

"Mum, I really don't think I can do this."

"Rose, it will take time," Jackie insisted, wiping tears from her daughter's face.

"You're always saying that," she muttered, looking down at the bed sheets.

"Well, my breath won't be wasted until you two sort it out," Jackie answered back, only for Rose to sigh in defeat. "Tell you what," her mother began. "Tony's babysitter is still ill and me and your dad want some time together tomorrow night. You could do with a bit of a cool down from John tomorrow. If you want." She quickly added. Rose gave a smile in thanks and nodded.

"Yeah, that's sounds good." How could she also give up the offer to spend time with her brother? "Um… mum?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I… Can I sleep here for the night?" Rose mumbled. At once, Jackie understood her daughter.

"I'll tell John you had to help me out here and fell asleep and I let you stay in for the night," Jackie reassured with a smile. "Don't wanna stir things up even more if he starts thinkin' you're avoidin' him for a bit." She forced a laugh and so did Rose. It was nice to see her daughter smile again.


	11. Boyfriends

**Note: **Boohoo, this chapter is way shorter than I intended it to be, so hopefully I'll make it up in the next chapter! *crosses fingers*

I really would like to thank all my proof readers for coping with me this far! :D

And last but certainly not least, I'd like to thank those who are following up this story. Hats off to everyone!

* * *

Chapter 11 - Boyfriends

Pete huffed as he noticed a bunch of paper work left in front of his office door. It was always the worse thing to start off his day and he was beginning to wonder how he was able to cope with such boring tasks every single day in Torchwood. Already struggling to carry files in one hand and his cup of coffee in the other, he made a feeble, yet successful attempt to open his office door with the back of his coffee wielding hand and shoved it inwards with his back. He didn't expect to find his office scattered with papers. He noticed his pen pot seemingly thrown carelessly by the side of the room along with various pencils and pens strewn across the carpet. This was obviously the work of an angry man. Pete saw the form of a man slumped on a chair and sleeping on his desk and neared the sleeping form where he noticed that awfully familiar shock of brown hair despite being unable to see the face being covered by his arms.

"John?!"

Instantly, John jerked up and looked up at Pete with a forced smile that really looked like the straightest face he thought he could ever make. Pete noticed his puffy, red eyes.

"Have you been crying?"

John scrubbed his face with his hands and shook his head petulantly.

"Was I out the whole night?" he murmured, still feeling groggy from a rough night's sleep. Pete gave a wry smile.

"Looks like it, mate," he replied, handing John his cup of coffee to which he willingly accepted. "Apparently you left our dog with my receptionist yesterday and never came down so she handed the dog to me. I had to look after the dog whilst signing my name loads of times on various papers Amy handed to me," Pete said, with a tinge of annoyance. "John you _dumped _the dog on me. And I was working. You weren't."

"… Sorry," John lamely replied. Pete looked at John.

"Something happened between you and Rose, am I right?" he asked, indicating the disheveled state his office was left in.

"I think I have anger issues," John suddenly said, glancing at the state of Pete's office. Then he frowned. "That's weird, I never get angry at myself to the point I trash the nearest room," he bitterly laughed. That was the work of Donna, he summarized. "Sorry about the mess." Pete could only look at John in total sympathy as he let out an almighty yawn and brushed his scruffy blue pinstripe suit.

"Forget the mess, John," Pete began. "And don't you even think about coming into work. Have a day off. Don't worry; I won't lower your wages. Just go home."

"Pete, what am I supposed to do?" John whined as he ran a hand through his hair. Pete grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Talk to Rose," he explained slowly. "I can't have your performance at work affected by your emotions. The AT crew can handle a bit of work on their own."

John just stared at him and a long silence followed through. The part Time Lord suddenly laughed bitterly, leaving Pete bewildered.

"John…"

"What's the point?" John trailed off. "She doesn't love me. I shouted at her and she left me. She was about to cry…" He looked at Pete expecting an angry father to shout at him for breaking his daughter's heart.

"John, you're _very _lucky I've been in your position before because I would have punched you square in the face right now." Pete murmured. All John could do was nod in understanding as he tugged at his ear, not exactly sure what to do. Pete studied his office for a brief moment and let out a winding sigh. "Oh, John… What am I gonna do with you?"

**…**

Adam Mitchell found himself slumped on a chair behind the counter reading another of London's posh newspapers. Customers weren't particularly attracted to come in the morning, so a visit to the suit store was certainly unexpected - especially on a Monday morning.

Ianto Jones entered the suit store almost unnoticed. He approached the counter where he found his best friend engrossed in a newspaper and cleared his throat, making Adam suddenly jerk his head up. The moment he saw Ianto, he tensed up. A new wave of guilt ran through Ianto and he forced a smile and handed Adam a paper cup of coffee he managed to purchase from Starbucks before stopping by. "I was being a jerk," Ianto declared, breaking the awkward silence the moment both men set eyes upon one another. Adam stared at the cup of coffee being offered to him in Ianto's hand. He also forced a smile and tentatively took the cup.

"No, I was being a jerk," he replied simply. "I've been practically working behind your back without considering your emotions."

"Yeah, you were the biggest jerk," Ianto quipped, taking a sip of his own coffee. Adam frowned at that and Ianto bitterly chuckled. "But I was the one who over reacted on something you had no choice but to do."

"To the biggest jerks," Adam supposed as they both raised their cups.

"To the biggest jerks," Ianto confirmed with a smile. They both took a swig of coffee before another seemingly long silence ensued. Adam fumbled with the corner of a page of his newspaper to try distract himself as Ianto looked down and shuffled uncomfortably on the spot.

Adam hesitated before finally speaking. "Look, if investigating Case 132 is making you uncomfortable, I can easily withdraw from it. I can't go on if my best friend will be affected." To his surprise, Ianto just shook his head.

"No, keep going," he replied with steel in his voice. "I've kept it bottled up inside for too long, and I bet you the other people affected by this murderer refuse to tell anyone how they're feeling. And because of that, I want to do something for their sakes."

"What are you saying?" Adam wondered, eyes narrowing.

"I want to help you investigate Case 132," Ianto declared. "I want to see this killer and make him pay for how much grief he's caused." He pointed at his chest, where his aching heart lay inside him. "The pain's killing me, Adam. And although finding and punishing the killer won't extinguish that pain entirely, it will relieve it. It's the least it can do to forget the fact that I could have done much more to save Lisa." Adam stared hard into Ianto's eyes. It showed nothing but raw determination. He was the man who wanted to avenge his long lost fiancée.

All Adam could do was nod.

**…**

It was then that Pete processed the state his office suddenly became when he left John and Rose to talk after handing him his identification and other paperwork the day before. He forced John to tidy his office in return for not hitting him for hurting Rose's feelings.

"It's the least I could do," John supposed, placing the last pen inside the pencil pot on Pete's desk. "God knows what a Tyler punch would feel like if I couldn't even tolerate a Tyler _slap_," he murmured, recalling a past memory and rubbing his left cheek as if the pain was still there.

The office was finally in pristine condition and John hummed in approval. Pete inspected the room and nodded.

"Good work," he remarked. "You're dismissed." John's eyes glinted as he picked up the very paper work that drove his anger the previous day and he made for the door.

And then it came.

"Go _home_."

John sighed internally.

"Yes, boss."

He headed into the white hallway where he trudged back in the direction towards the elevator, thinking awfully deeply at what he could possibly do now. He was in too much thought he didn't realize a woman heading in the opposite direction to him, and they bumped shoulders almost making John stumble backwards.

"Sorry," he muttered in time to look up at her face and gasp.

"No, no, I didn't notice you there," she replied hastily and gave that warm smile. "I was rummaging through this big bag – looking for that name card I accidentally dropped inside as I was getting my notepad." She gave that hearty laugh. John smiled at the sight of her – maybe too much for the situation, but who cares? "Oh, how embarrassing!" she suddenly exclaimed. "I lose my name card at the most inconvenient times and no one will know who I am and Torchwood guards will think of me as an outsider!"

"Oh, don't worry," John assured. "I don't see you as an outsider." Either she didn't hear him or she was ignoring him as she continued rummaging through her bag. Eventually she gave up and composed herself, looking up to meet John's gaze.

"I'm Sarah Jane Smith," she greeted with an outstretched hand. "I'm a journalist working on Case 132 for _The Independent_."

Oh, a new face he'd been longing to see.

"Yes you are," John beamed, taking her hand in a firm shake. "I'm the Do- John Smith," he instantly corrected.

"Oh, you must be the new man who joined Torchwood a few weeks ago," Sarah Jane thought.

"Could be me," John joked as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Other newspapers are wanting to get an exclusive on you, but I reckon _The Independent _would do you justice." John shook his head.

"Sorry, I don't do the press," he replied in the nicest way possible. Sarah Jane smiled in understanding.

"That's okay," she assured. "I'm only working on this Case 132 pelava, but if you ever have second thoughts, please don't hesitate to call me." She produced a business card from her inner blazer pocket and John obliged to take it. "Well, my slot for an interview with Pete Tyler is coming up." John understood the subtle hint and nodded.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Sarah Jane Smith," John began, still smiling like a loon. Sarah Jane nodded before heading off towards Pete's office. For a moment, he felt a pang of homesickness for the other universe, but eventually got the better of it. Besides, he needed cheering up after what happened and seeing such a familiar face was certainly a breath of much needed fresh air.

**…**

It was a simple fact: John was bored. He really had no clue what to do on his own in the apartment… He read the whole _To His Dark Materials _trilogy; completely disassembled and reassembled the LCD screen TV, experimented with different hairstyles using a new hair gel he found at the local supermarket, arranged his whole wardrobe in alphabetical order according to their colour, cleaned all of his pairs of _Converse_, vacuumed the whole apartment, even though there were hardly any carpets, cleaned his bike, fixed the arrangement of lenses in Rose's telescope in the hopes of thinking she would forgive him for his stupid behaviour the day before and jogged around the estate twenty eight times before the landlord began to complain that he was getting unnecessary attention from the neighbors - who wouldn't when it was even raining outside? - all in a space of three painfully long hours. It was starting to get to him and he really thought he was losing his sanity after he found himself pulling weeds by the garage. Again, it was rainging outside - who'd garden in the rain? John found himself doing the most human thing possible: watching _Top Gear _on TV. The constant talk of fast cars made him want the TARDIS even more (as much as he loved his bike). Then he noticed that yellow file lying innocently on the coffee table. The file label _"Case 132"_. He glared at the folder like it personally insulted him and eventually gave in and leaned at an awkward angle to retrieve it. John flicked through the pages; already memorizing what he'd read a couple of days before when Jack briefed him on the case.

"Now, Mr. Murderer. Who could you possibly be?" he murmured more at the folder as he flicked through files of the dead victims.

He let himself think amidst the background noise of the TV. The only links between the victims are: 1. They were female. 2. The victims are random – they've no link to one another. No contact with one another, no relations, nothing. 3. The time between each murder decreases by one. 3. The victims first disappear and get killed three days after. 4. The victim's bodies are found in the most barren places in London.

John hummed. So, there would be an eighty nine percent chance that this murderer would be a male - he was _that _confident in himself. This murderer appears to be rather full of himself and almost like a perfectionist if he were to conduct abductions and killings at a systematic pace. And finally, this murderer likes to be discrete if he favored hiding the bodies in the most unlikely places of London. Let's not forget that this murderer is one heck of a "heartless, cold and disgusting ape" as John preferred to put it. He frowned. He needed more evidence, more facts, more links… No one knew what this killer's motives are, how he thought, or if he had a grudge on any of them. His mind delved even further into the investigation, working so intensely and fast than it had ever before. He had to admit, this was certainly tough. He had to think between the lines… but isn't that what he had been doing for the past five minutes?

Then it struck him.

"They have boyfriends," he murmured to himself. "They have boyfriends!" John found himself yelling. How could he be so stupid? It was stick out like a sore thumb right in front of his face all this time. Yeah, they have boyfriends, but it revealed a possible motive. And John was sixty four percent certain this killer is out there breaking up couples in the most horrifying way possible. Now that he knew they were couples, he was certain the killer could possibly interact sexually with his victims before murder. Perhaps out of jealousy? What if he didn't? What could this killer do with the victims for three days if he didn't? John let out a winding sigh. He just found another link. And now he could finally rule out categories of victims. It was just a small revelation, but he was relieved he was moving forwards. He grabbed his Torchwood issue laptop and placed it on his lap. With the odd mathematic algorithm and buzz of the sonic screwdriver, he was in the police records and proceeded with what he was best at: Meddling.

It was then his mobile phone rang, tearing his attention from the computer. John groaned the moment he read _"Jackie Tyler Calling" _on the screen.

**…**

"Sweetheart, I just called John," Jackie called out as she adjusted an earring. "Told 'im you'll be babysittin' Tony for the night so he won't be botherin' you." Rose looked at her mum and gave her a smile of gratitude.

"Thanks."

"Dinner's in the fridge," Jackie began. "Don't give Tony any sweets, he has to be in bed at seven otherwise his sleepin' pattern will get messed up, don't watch horror films whilst he's with you and don't you dare help 'im in the toilet. He's trained to use the toilet and the dog food is in the cupboard under the sink, but I already prepared it. Oh, and if anyone rings the phone and asks for me, tell 'em to sod off."

Rose had stopped listening as Tony bounded up to her whilst Jackie had been talking. Jackie in turn rolled her eyes, but had that mischievous smile. Something was up...

"I'll be back before midnight."

And with that, she hurried out of the door. Rose waited until the car outside was heard no more and a blissful silence ensued the whole mansion.

_"WOOF, WOOF!" _As if on cue, Rose the dog ran in to accompany the two siblings in the living room, panting as if running away from something.

"Woah! Not so fast," Rose laughed as the dog began circling her. It began slobbering all over the floor making Rose wince. "Ew, dog saliva…"

"Oi! I didn't throw the ball yet!" came that awfully familiar voice from the kitchen. "Hey, Tony, I got you some chocolate chip cookies you like." Rose frowned, utterly confused at what was happening.

"Rose's boyfriend!" Tony called out, running up to the man Rose never wanted to see. Yet. The moment he saw her, the same kind of shocked expression was on his face.

"What the _hell_ are you doin' here?!" Rose demanded.

"Babysitting Tony!" John exclaimed. "What are _you _doing here?"

"Babysittin' Tony!" Rose replied flippantly.

"What?"

"Oh, you heard me Mr. _"I'm so superior"_," she retorted. John bitterly laughed.

"Right, because I don't deserve you," he jeered. "This universe tries to tear us apart and look at us now! Being reunited like it's giving us a chance."

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen."

"Ha! So tell your mother to quit messing with us," John snapped. Rose scoffed.

"Oh, so you're puttin' my mum into this now?"

"Well, she's the one who called me to babysit. I bet she asked you to babysit, too." He gasped in mock shock. "Oh, what a coincidence! We both got asked to babysit at the exact place, time and date," John quipped. "Call me wrong but I think she's trying to get us together."

"Yeah, okay. We're catchin' on, oh Superior One. We _are _humans, but we _do _have properly functionin' brains," Rose chided. John stared hard at her before sighing and storming off towards the front door. But Rose's eyes suddenly widened as she outstretched her arms in an attempt to grab John. "No, John…!"

The little pool of dog saliva was unnoticed and John skidded, falling backwards. Being in a living room proved to be _very _inconvenient as he slammed his chest on the arm of a nearby sofa, knocking the air out of him. But the universe wasn't having it. He slammed his head on the coffee table next to it and another not-so-blissful silence followed by. Rose and Tony shrieked at what they witnessed before noticing a tiny pool of blood forming by John's head. This when Rose had to disagree with John's hate for carpets…

**…**

**[Earlier that day…]**

_"You said you had a lead, Mitchell."_

"I do, I do!" Adam muttered over the telephone as he walked across his hotel kitchenette. He proceeded to pour milk into a glass. "Just give me time…"

_"Time is money. How many times do I have to keep banging that into your dense skull?" _the voice across the phone snapped.

"I've just fallen into a bit of a complicated situation right now," he exclaimed, taking a swig of milk. There was a sigh on the other end of the call and Adam felt his cheeks warming up. There was a brief silence.

_"You have two weeks to finish this case."_

"What?!" Adam blurted. "Sir, you want me to _finish _this case in two weeks? That's impossible. There's been no known links and hardly enough evidence was collected to even give us any forensics results. There have only been theories regarding the case that's hardly making investigations any easier. We're talking about a case that will last for _months_!"

_"I don't care, Mitchell!" _the voice boomed. _"You're just gonna have to press on with your work. Work a million times faster if you have to!"_

"Oh, I'll press on with my work," Adam muttered under his breath. He scrunched his fist until his knuckles turned white, resisting the urge to hit the nearest thing.

_"WHAT?!"_

"I said I'll get to work as soon as possible," Adam replied through gritted teeth.

_"Two weeks, Mr. Mitchell."_

"Yes, _boss_." Adam said the noun forcefully and disdainfully before hanging up. He had to get started sooner than planned.


	12. Undress John Day

**Note: **Ehehe... Well, the chapter name sorta tells it all...

Oh blimey, my proof readers are being rather slow, but I'll break the rules and post before their permission. Rules are meant to be broken!

This chapter is a bit more laid back, but I just wanted to focus on John and Rose for the meantime.

* * *

Chapter 11 - Undress John Day

John blinked for a few moments, trying to process the last few seconds that had occurred. He didn't just skid over dog saliva, did he? He gazed around, frowning at his white surroundings. Oh, Rassilon, he's not…

No.

This was just a figment of his imagination warped by this white environment. He'd been knocked out. For a second, John tried to pinch himself – anything to wake him up from this long trance. But it was like his body had shut down. Trying to move his limbs certainly proved to be an impossible ask in his current state… Eventually, John gave in and just collapsed on the white, floorless area. He glanced around, but saw no end to his surroundings - just this never-ending vacuum…

Then he swore he heard a voice, but dismissed it.

_"John!"_

Oh, he's so thick! He forgets, nearly all the time…

Someone will call him, maybe a colleague from Torchwood, yelling, _"John!" _and he'll turn to look just a second too late to smile and say with a grin, _"Oh, sorry, what is it?" _

Just a second too late, and in the infinite space between the end of one second and the beginning of the next, his eyes flooded with that dark, sorrow-filled look that _He _held.

_"John!"_

Knowing this voice was too real to be a figment of his insanity, John began to look around.

But if he were to hear _"Doctor!"_ he'd whip around upon instinct, the way he'd always done it for the past nine hundred years. Oh, if only Rose could, for once, just call him by his real name…

_"Doctor!"_

That was it.

In a split second, John was up on his feet; his whole body rotating immediately towards the voice, twisting even before his lower body could continue the turn. He craned his neck in all four directions, but all he could see was the never-ending whiteness of this void his mind conjured up.

_"It's not gonna work…" _came the voice. John swore he had heard that voice before…

_"John!"_

The voice was even more desperate, urging John to wake up. But then it came to a nervous, but firm whisper.

_"Please wake up… Doctor."_

**…**

"John!" Rose cried out as she watched John lying helplessly on the living room floor.

"Rose, is he dead?" Tony whimpered, walking a little closer towards the still form. "He's bleeding…"

"Don't be silly, Tony," Rose snapped.

Panic ran all over her face. For the first time since that day, she whispered in his ear, _"Doctor"_ in the hopes he would suddenly wake up, just like that Christmas Day… To her utter relief, she heard a groan emanate from the still body below her and her expression fluctuated from relief to shock as she watched John trying to pick himself up.

"John, don't move!" she exclaimed.

Either he didn't hear her or he ignored her as arms began to shake from his body weight. Then he felt a searing pain all around his right side, let alone the throbbing sensation in his head and a burning feeling all around his shoulder resulting him to rasp in pain and drop instantly to the floor. He tried to bring himself up in another attempt, but fell straight to the floor again.

"Ow…" he murmured lamely to the floor and then blinked a few times and frowned. "Everything's all rosy. _Nope! _That's the blood running down my face," he muttered flippantly and began to notice a pool of blood slowly creeping around his line of sight. Immediately, he pushed himself up again only to shoot back down to the floor after feeling another unbearable pain all over his right side. "Rose, I can't get up," he murmured.

"What?"

"I can't get up," he slowly explained.

"What do you mean you can't get up?" she boggled, beginning to panic.

"ROSE!" he shrieked. "I can't get up!"

"Oh right!" she yelped, picking him up and putting his arm around her. The whole process seemed a simple task, but it took nearly ten minutes just for John to co-operate. "Are you okay?"

"_Yes_," he exclaimed before she rolled her eyes at him.

**…**

Jackie Tyler watched as the waiter poured her a glass of _Chateau Mouton Rothschild _wine. Having twenty three grand's of wine being poured into her glass by a rather handsome and young waiter in front of her should make her feel over the moon, but Pete noticed that _"I shouldn't be here" _expression on her face and sighed.

"Are you okay?" he mumbled.

Jackie looked up at him with a serious expression on her face and Pete took it as a _"no"_. With a nod and smile to the waiter, he scampered off to the next table and Jackie finally began to break down in an instant.

"Oh my God, Pete," she cried out. "What if Tony's not in bed and eatin' junk food? What if the house is a mess by the time we come home? What if Rose forgot to turn off the cooker? What if the dog pees on the floor? What if John creates an explosion?" Jackie gasped and suddenly grabbed her husband's hand in a death grip. "Pete, what if the house gets hit by a hurricane?!" Pete's eyes widened.

"Did you say _"John"_?" he boggled, clearly ignoring Jackie's point.

"Yeah, I invited John to babysit Tony, too," Jackie shrugged.

"Jackie," Pete began as calm as possible. "You _do _know what's been going on between them two, right?"

"Yes."

"…" Pete stared at Jackie in total disbelief. And then the penny dropped and he slowly nodded. "Oh…"

"Yeeaahh…" Jackie chided, rolling her eyes. "You really think I got 'em two for no reason? They have to talk some day or another!" She took a bite of caviar. Pete proceeded to take a bite of his own.

"You really think it would work?" he mumbled.

"Course it would!" Jackie replied. "We've gone through what they're goin' and look at us now."

All Pete could do was nod no matter how uneasy he felt with the whole situation.

**…**

Beyond those automatic doors into the Torchwood hospital ward, Rose struggled to help an injured part Time Lord towards the waiting room.

"Wow, you weigh a lot for a skinny bloke," she quipped.

"I have a higher bone density?" John supposed and Rose shrugged in slight agreement. He suddenly groaned and clutched his side as Rose tightened her grip around him. She noticed his head started bleeding again and John frowned. "Rose I'm bleeding again…"

"Yes, I figured," she muttered, desperately looking around for any help. She glanced back at John with raised brows. "You're dealin' with this much calmer than I thought," she mused.

"Really?" John gasped. "Because I feel like I'm gonna fall down and cripple up. Damn you humans and your lower pain thresholds." Rose rolled her eyes at him. She'd just had enough of his rambling and pinning the human race down like some bug on the ground.

"Deal with it," she snapped, hauling him as he clutched her shoulder even tighter and leaned on her at an awkward angle. Rose noticed his uneven breathing and a wave of worry washed through her.

"Rose," John breathed. "I think… I think I broke… some ribs," he managed to let out. "My chest… hurts…"

"Yeah, try not to talk too much," she muttered, feeling annoyed. Why isn't anyone at the ward reception?! "Can someone help us?!" she practically shouted. They slumped on nearby sofas, Rose being very careful when resting John on the seat next to hers.

"Where's… Tony?" John wondered.

"Waitin' in the lobby with the dog. Now be quiet," Rose ordered.

"Dog?" he seriously wondered.

"Well, we can't just leave the dog in the house on its own!" she exclaimed. "Now shut up."

He did just as she said and waited silently, glancing blankly at the space in front of him and trying to keep a straight face as he tried to deal with the throbbing pain his head. Rose didn't want to cause too much hassle so she took John to Torchwood's emergency room. Besides, she didn't want to raise attention in a public place like the hospital… Without any warning, the doors to the ward burst open and a dark skinned woman rushed through, her strides showing authority over the area.

"Now what the hell is going on?" she demanded with an annoyed tone. She noticed Rose staring at her and sighed, giving a warm smile. "Sorry, had to deal with a restless Sontaran. It's part of a training exercise for the newcomers, so expect fewer staff." She noticed a rather cute, skinny man next to Rose staring at her, jaw hung open.

"Hi, Martha," Rose began, finding John's expression absolutely priceless. "This is John. He fell and keeps complainin' about this pain on his chest." Martha instinctively rushed towards John and examined his head wound. She noticed his blank stare and arched a brow.

"He stares a lot," the junior doctor quipped, gesturing Rose to help her pick John up.

"I never noticed," Rose stated with sarcasm, rolling her eyes as John stared at her wide-eyed.

"Martha Jones!" he squeaked, now brimming with surprise and joy. "Oh, what a small world…" He was lead towards a hospital bed and sat on it uneasily as Martha rummaged in the medical cupboard nearby. "Never liked hospitals…" John suddenly grumbled, scanning his surroundings with narrow eyes.

"Cat nuns?" Rose wondered, remembering an early memory. John shrugged.

"That and another reason," he replied. "Don't really wanna talk about it. Yet," he quickly added, seeing as he really shouldn't keep anything from Rose. Martha listened to the non-sensical conversation in bemusement. Cat nuns? She silently chuckled as she took out a pair of gloves, a pack of antiseptic wipes and sterile dressing.

"Now, what have you done to yourself?" Martha boggled, crossing the space between her and John.

She winced at the gash on his head and cautiously wiped around it. Rose watched in amusement as John squirmed under Martha's care.

"Slipped on dog saliva," she mused, trying not to laugh in front of John.

John, however, felt his cheeks warm up and Rose noticed his ears turn pink in embarrassment.

"Dog saliva?" the junior doctor asked in disbelief, the shook her head. "No, I've treated even stupid accidents than yours."

John scowled. Was she saying his accident was _stupid_? On second thoughts…

"Is he gonna be alright?" Rose asked.

"I'm fine, Rose" John insisted before groaning in pain.

She rolled her eyes at him as Martha cleaned the last of any dried blood.

"Thankfully, the wound on your head isn't too deep for stitches, so I'll just get one of the nurses to apply steri-strips to close it up," Martha announced.

"Steri-strips!" John exclaimed with excitement. "Probably one of the greatest inventions in medical history. _We-ell_, exclude the X-rays and MRI scanners. Nothing creates a better alternative to stitches. They lessen scarring and are easy to care for." Then he turned to Rose. "Treating an open wound with steri-strips is also known as butterfly stitching, Rose."

"Well, he's regained his energy," Martha quipped, trying to mend his head despite John's frantic movement. "Hold this," she ordered, making John hold a sterile wipe against his head.

"I'm not surprised," Rose murmured back, suppressing a giggle.

"A guy can try to amuse himself to forget about his pains," John retorted, frowning like a stubborn little schoolboy.

"If you'd just be patient," Martha began, "I'll get the painkillers when you stop moving." She made a subtle hint for him to stop squirming under her care, but John suddenly shook his head, making the junior doctor sigh.

"N-no!" he yelped. "I'm anaphylactic…" Martha blinked at this new revelation.

"Really?"

Rose took this as a bad thing and stared at John. "You're _what_?"

"Allergic to aspirin," John replied indifferently.

"What, Time Lords are allergic to aspirin? Oh, that's a bummer," Rose mused, earning a glare from John.

"Rose, I could _die _if I have as little as a single trace of aspirin in me," the part Time Lord declared and Rose took that moment to think deeply about what he had just said.

"Do you feel any other pains?" Martha queried, trying to evade another awkward silence between the two. She removed her gloves and dumped them on a nearby tray.

"Head, shoulder and right side," John murmured, biting his lip. Martha slowly nodded as she proceeded to undo his tie, earning the most suspicious look from John.

"Don't worry," Martha began, rolling her eyes. "I just need to take a look at your injuries, if that's what you want to know."

John relaxed a bit. He regenerated the last time doctors tried to prod at his biology, so it was fair for him to be very careful. He glanced in total surprise as she began to unbutton his jacket and followed by his shirt. Rose sighed in disappointment.

"So much layers," she muttered.

Martha in turn, laughed at that remark as they finally undressed his top half. Apart from various bruising around John's lower abdomen, Rose concluded he seemed okay. But Martha begged to differ.

"He's dislocated his right shoulder," Martha announced, pointing at his shoulder.

It was slightly unnoticeable, but seeing Rose's lack of medical knowledge, she had to admit she didn't even notice it in the beginning. John's right shoulder looked slightly square than round…

John groaned. Not out of the pain he's feeling now, but the pain he'll feel once his shoulder would be popped back into place.

"Just get it over with," he muttered, tilting his head away from his injured shoulder.

Surprised that he knew the drill, Martha nodded, but shook her head after.

"I need to do some quick tests to check for any fractures and nerve damage."

"I'm fine," John insisted again. Martha glanced at Rose.

"Is he always this stubborn?" she laughed and Rose nodded.

"You don't know the half of it," she teased, noticing that tenacious look on John.

The next thing she knew, John whipped out his sonic screwdriver with his free hand and buzzed his shoulder before studying the device. Then he looked back at the two women with an expression that screamed, _"I told you so!"_

"See?!" he exclaimed, waving his sonic screwdriver around. "The sonic says no fractures or nerve damage." He pointed his head at his dislocated shoulder. "Can you fix it now?" Martha looked at Rose for help.

"John, I can't do that. It's against policies to fix an injury without checking it won't cause any more damage. Besides, how can I trust _that_?" She pointed at the metal device in John's hands and he gave an expression of shock.

"Don't doubt the sonic screwdriver!" he gasped, watching Martha smile and turn away.

"I'm just going to book a slot for your X-ray," she called out, ignoring John's protests.

Rose and John found themselves alone were left in an awkward silence. The ward was rather quiet for a busy place like the Torchwood ward…

"I'm sorry," Rose suddenly said, not looking at John. "I didn't mean to snap at you. I just lost my patience when I knew you wouldn't have taken this new world smoothly." John gazed at the blonde woman for a moment. "But if there's one thing, I'd always accept you for who you are. If you want, I can call you "Doctor" if it means gainin' your respect." To her surprise, John chuckled. She looked back at him, a frown almost forming on her face. "What?"

"_I_ should be the one to say sorry," he replied, scratching the back of his head with his free arm. "You can call me "John" because I can't live up to the Doctor. What I said to you was out of order. Heck, I deserved that punch from your dad if he didn't make me clean his office." He noticed a questioning glance from Rose. "Long story," he answered with a wry smile and she slowly nodded. "But really," he began, sighing. "I don't deserve you and not because I'm superior and all that rubbish. I just don't think I'll be enough for you. You deserve so much more - more than the TARDIS and all of time and space. That's just the materialistic stuff. You deserve a better _life_. So if you don't want me, I will totally understand if-"

"No."

"… Okay…"

"I want to be with you," Rose declared. John stared hard into Rose's eyes for a brief moment, sadness and guilt evident in his eyes. Then he sighed.

"Rose, I think it's best if I moved in with your parents." Rose's eyes widened in shock.

"John, what are you tryin' to say?" she demanded, standing up from her seat and closing the gap between her and John.

"I just think the both of us need time to settle in this new world knowing we're both here," John answered almost hesitantly. "We're throwing ourselves in the deep end too soon." He tensed the moment Rose sat next to him on the bed.

"Haven't we done that for the past two weeks?" Rose objected, now tightening her grip around the edge of the mattress. John just shook his head.

"I'm so, so sorry, Rose," he murmured. "But I think it's for the best. When the time comes, I can move back in with you. If you're still up for it," he added. "So what d'you think?"

"What I think," Rose began, "is that you're takin' this over the top." Rose noticed John frowning. "Oh, c'mon! We argued because of some stupid paper work." Again, the part Time Lord shook his head petulantly. "John, we can't stay angry with each other."

"It's not that," John muttered, glaring at the floor. "It's just… _really_ annoying." It had taken a while for him to admit it, but it really _was _annoying for him. "Rose you've just lost the one person you cherished and clearly, me being here makes you uncomfortable. Like I said: When the time comes, we'll see how it goes from then on."

"John, you-"

He interrupted her. "Like you just said: We argued over paper work. That was such a little thing we both got worked up on."

Rose hesitated.

"But, we- It's not like… I can't just," Rose stammered. "… this _is _annoying," she muttered, frowning. They were enveloped in another silence. John swung his legs dangling from the hospital bed to distract himself and mostly refrain from looking back at Rose. But she couldn't take it anymore. "Please stay," she croaked, now clinging onto his hand like it were a lifeline thrown to her in a raging storm. To his surprise, John noticed that look of desperation in Rose's eyes. She _really_ didn't want to lose him… Upon instinct, he leaned towards her for a hug, spreading his arms, but totally oblivious that he was still injured and as a result, yelled in utter pain. Rose, in turn, yelped as his weight fell onto hers.

"It's like my whole shoulder is on fire," the part Time Lord cried out, a tear nearly forming in his eye. "It hurts," he whimpered, burying his head into Rose's shoulder. "Where the hell is Martha?!"

"She's still tryin' to find a slot for your X-ray," Rose cried out, watching as John scrunched his eyes and gritted his teeth. She felt utterly helpless and for once in her life, she really wished she could have paid more attention in her school trip to the hospital all those years ago. "You know," she began in an attempt to help John. "In times like this, it's alright to let out your feelings."

"Oh, is it?" John answered flippantly. Rose nodded lamely and in return, he let out the most inhuman groan she'd ever heard. "Rose, we can't leave this dislocated bone dislocated for any more time," John gasped. He winced and bit his tongue to show no more pain – it was scaring Rose already…

"But Martha needs to run these tests on you!" Rose objected, clutching onto him.

"My shoulder, upper arm and torso muscles are being stretched to the point where I can't tolerate it," he snapped. "I'm part human, don't forget!"

"Well, what am I supposed to do?!" Rose hollered with anger and annoyance in her tone.

"Pop it back into place!" John exclaimed as if Rose was a simpleton to miss out such an obvious thing. She scoffed.

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen. Successfully," she added, bitterly laughing at herself. "And I don't wanna cause any more damage if it's put back into place - Martha said so!"

"You gotta trust me," John pleaded. Then he gave a dramatic sigh. "Or I could just do it myself and hope for the best." And with that, he raised his uninjured arm towards his right arm and Rose yelped.

"No, you'll hurt yourself!" she cried out, batting his hand away from his dislocated shoulder. Rose began to panic, glancing around for any sign of help. But there was nothing. "Can someone help us?!" she yelled across the ward, but no one was coming… she suddenly remembered something about a restless Sontaran. Maybe that's where the rest of the medical team were. Rose looked back at John who was leaning heavily on her, clutching his injured shoulder. Then he up, tears on his cheeks much to Rose's surprise. She'd never seen him cry…

"Stupid humans and their lower pain tolerances!" he cried out, gasping for air. "Rose… please, just pop it back in place." She hesitated, trying to comprehend what was happening and seriously wondering if this was ever the best solution.

"I… I dunno how," Rose whimpered, feeling like she wanted to cry for John. She felt a hand on hers. It was John. He looked at her with determination in his eyes and had that small smile he managed to put on despite what he was going through.

"Prove me wrong," he breathed. "Prove to me that I _am _over reacting with what was going on. Prove to me that I deserve to stay with you." He stopped before declaring the final thing. "Prove to me that it won't be annoying from now on." Rose stared hard at the part Time Lord who was indicating for her to do what he wanted her to do from the start.

"You're putting your safety in _my_ hands," she warned, gently holding his right arm.

"You've done that to me loads of times. Surely you should repay that?" he quipped. Rose rolled her eyes at him.

"Oh, shut up," she bit back and John was forcing a smile. Rose gave up to John's persistent arguments and studied his shoulder. "Okay, what do you want me to do?" she wondered as John carefully laid back onto the bed, letting his right arm hang slightly off the edge of the bed whilst Rose got off and stood by the edge of the bed.

"Climb on the bed and kneel on top of me."

"…" Rose could only stare in mild surprise at what he just said. "Nice," she joked, trying to find some comfort in all this. The part Time Lord rolled his eyes.

"It's for leverage," John replied seriously. She clambered onto the bed, knees resting on either sides of John's torso. He opened his right hand and gestured to it.

"Hold my hand."

Rose quietly obliged, finding this rather amusing. She laced her fingers around his hands and he held it in a tight grip.

"Now pull."

"What?"

"Rose. _Pull_," John pressed on. It was then she understood why she was in an awkward position on top of John. John gritted his teeth as Rose steadily pulled his arm towards herself, using her knees as a weight before feeling his joint snap back into place. At that moment, John let out what could have been the hundredth groan on the day.

"Ow…" he lamely murmured, moving his arm slightly. He looked up and found Rose in his line of sight. Of course she'd be centimeters from his face if she weren't on top of him. He gave a lop-sided grin. "You know, not a lot of people can prove me wrong." Rose let out a winding sigh and poked his head.

"Don't put me under so much pressure like that, okay?" she demanded.

As if on cue, Martha ran into the ward. "I heard some one shouting," she gasped. "Is everything alrigh…" She stopped at the sight of Rose on top of John on the hospital bed. "I'm not disrupting anything am I?" Instantly, Rose flew off John in a speed beyond belief.

"No, no!" John cried out, bringing himself to sitting position on the edge of the bed again. "Actually, I could do with an ice pack," he began. "Oh, and you could cancel that X-ray slot while you're at it." Martha noticed that stupid grin plastered on his face. Then he raised his what-was-supposed-to-be-injured hand and waved it her.

"You've got to be kidding me," the junior doctor exclaimed as she walked away.

John and Rose burst out laughing the minute Martha disappeared through those two doors. Then a male nurse approached the two and greeted them with a nervous smile. The moment he set eyes upon Rose, his outer demeanor changed and he relaxed a little.

"Nice to see you again, Rose," he smiled.

John arched a brow.

"Oh, you two have met before?" he wondered with a tinge of suspicion he hoped Rose didn't notice in his tone. She, however, begged to differ when she rolled her eyes.

"He was one of Torchwood's transfers," Rose slowly explained. "His name's Rory Williams, and yes, I've met him previously. Before you ask, no. There's nothing goin' on between us. You really think this low of me?" she asked seriously.

"Let's not get there," John grated.

Rose stared hard at John, noticing the tension rising again.

"In fact," she began with an excited tone and nudging the nurse on the arm. "Rory here's gettin' married!"

That seemed to catch John off guard when his hard glare fluctuated into a broad grin. "Really?" John beamed. "Who's the lucky girl?"

"Her name's Amy Pond," Rory replied, smiling. "We're getting married in June next year."

"Amy Pond?" John echoed. "The ginger girl who did my legal paperwork, _that _Amy Pond?"

"Aw, that's sweet you're getting married," Rose smiled. "I bet you're gonna have a blast," she giggled.

She found herself in another mind trance, thinking of possibly the most impossible ideas on marriage. She silently laughed silently to herself at such thoughts. She watched as Rory proceeded to mend John's wound.

**…**

In the end, he had an X-ray. Martha was insistent to check out John's physiology and nothing would peeve a doctor more upon noticing slight bruising around John's lower abdomen.

They peered at the X-ray scans and John, who was now clad in a sling and had butterfly stiches on his head, gave another groan from the bed. He was holding an ice pack against his right side.

"You've broken three ribs," Rose exclaimed in disbelief, still staring at the scans. "_Three _ribs, oh Superior One."

"Yes, oh Pink and Yellow One. I have broken three ribs," John repeated in a monotonous voice.

"Blimey, John. You're fragile," she laughed. "You only skidded on _dog saliva_!"

"In my defense, considering my height, I gained more kinetic energy and lost more gravitational potential energy and thus exerted a greater force against the ground," he intercepted.

"I don't know what you just said, but _three ribs_."

John rolled his eyes. "I had a worse than normal fall so the impact would be greater," he dumbed down for Rose.

"Three ribs," Rose continued with a cheeky grin. John ran his free hand through his hair, making it stand on end. Rose watched him do so and mused. His hair really never seized to amaze her… Then another thought struck her. "John, are you a lefty or a righty?"

"Righty, why?" he boggled, soon realizing where Rose was getting at. "Ahh…"

"Not only are you injured," Rose began. "You're _useless_." Instead of taking it as an insult, John had other thoughts in mind.

"Does that mean you're gonna have to peel my bananas and feed them to me?" he grinned.

"Oh, I'll personally break those bananas," Rose slowly warned. John could see that Jackie Tyler in her as she said those words and slowly drifted his hand over his crotch. Rose smirked and ambled towards Martha. "He'll be alright?" she asked, concern in her eyes. Martha smiled. Rose had every right to be worried. In her years of medical experience, she'd gotten used to this.

"Of course he'll be fine," Martha reassured. "He'll take about six weeks to fully heal, so make sure he doesn't do too much." Rose laughed at that last part.

"I'll do my best."

"Unlike broken arms or legs, John won't be able to have a cast to set his broken ribs in place," Martha stated. "He's going to have to live on painkillers and some breathing pains until they fully mend. I never knew he'd be anaphylactic, so I'll have to prescribe him with acetaminophen." Rose sighed at that and Martha noticed her growing disappointment. "Hey! He's gonna heal in the end."

"Yeah, you're right," Rose replied, forcing a smile. "I just never thought I'd see John in this state. Not after what happened before…" she trailed off. "Then when he's fine, he's out there poking danger in the face with a stick and there's no stopping him. I bet you he'll be back in the AT department by tomorrow." Martha nodded in understanding.

"He's one of those restless types," she supposed. "Well, from what I hear about tasks in the AT department, I doubt he'll do much strenuous work. He should be fine, but I would strongly recommend you keep him in. Tie him on a leash if you have to," she added with a laugh. Rose sniggered and looked back at John who was examining an ultrasound scanner nearby.

"Yeah…"

**…**

Jackie's eyes widened upon seeing her daughter help John in a sling and a giant plaster across the side of his forehead walk into the apartment. The poor souls were drenched in rain! Rose shut the door from the constant flashing of photographer's cameras. Who knew journalists were _still_ lurking around her apartment. Rose inwardly cursed her fame thanks to her dad, as much as it wasn't his fault.

"Bloody hell!" Jackie cried out, peeling herself from the dining chair to help John. "You can't go round bangin' yourself!"

"Right, thank you for the advice," John answered very sarcastically, shaking his head in an attempt to dry his hair of rain.

"Mum!" Rose wailed, struggling under John's surprisingly heavy weight. "Wait, since when - _how _did you get in here?"

"Martha called me and said somethin' about forgettin' John's medicine from the hospital ward and I thought it was some code word for contraception or somethin'. So I went to Torchwood and I find out he broke three ribs, dislocated his shoulder and hit his head!" she exclaimed.

"Contraception?" Rose echoed. "Really? You thought he left his condo-"

"Your mum has such a bright mind," John interrupted in a cheery tone that was clearly out of mock. He stared at Jackie. "Speaking of your mum, how did she get into the apartment?" Jackie rolled her eyes at him.

"I had spare keys, sweetheart," she replied indifferently as if everyone would remember and go _"ah…" _

"We never had a spare set of keys," John wondered.

"Well you do _now_," Jackie snapped, jingling the keys in front of their faces.

"She got them duplicated, didn't she?" John breathed. Rose sighed.

"Just help him sit on the sofa whilst I get him some milk," she instructed her mother. John frowned.

"Milk?"

"No, I will pee in a cup and give it to you," Rose quipped before hurrying off to the kitchen.

John managed to carefully sit on the sofa and winced at what Rose just said.

"It's to help with the bones, sweetheart," Jackie said soothingly. Then her mood suddenly changed from caring mother to bickering parent. "You bloody idiot! You can't go round bangin' yourself!" she exclaimed, flailing her arms.

"Yes, Jackie. You told me 4 minutes, 34 seconds and 26 mini-seconds ago," John bantered before getting daggers from Jackie.

He shrunk under her threatening gaze before Rose came to his rescue with a glass of milk to which he willingly accepted and finished in three gulps.

"You don't really have to do this," he insisted, placing the glass back on the coffee table in front. "I have a high healing factor and if you urgently want me to heal straight away, I could just _try_ go into a healing coma-"

"No comas before our date," Rose warned. John's head perked up at the word _"date"_.

"Wait, you go into a coma to heal?" Jackie seriously wondered. Blimey, I almost forgot you're part alien…"

"Yes, thank you Jackie," John replied flippantly. "I didn't say I _can _do it, but it's worth a try." Suddenly, a thought crossed Rose's mind.

"Mum, I'm just gonna take John back into the bedroom to help give him a wash and a new set of clothes." Jackie studied John and nodded.

"You're right, sweetheart. He's got a bit of blood smeared on his shirt. Tell you what," she began, walking towards John and undoing his tie, followed by his shirt. "I'll clean up his clothes because Sharon told me this new way of getting' rid of stains."

Rose inwardly sighed. How typical of a mum… John squirmed as he found himself completely shirtless with only his bandages for his broken ribs covering him. Was it _"Undress John Day"_? He gaped at Jackie who was holding his shirt. She frowned at him, like she didn't get what he was trying to get at.

"Well, what are you waitin' for? Shoo!" she waved off as John flitted into the bedroom with Rose in tow.

He immediately shut the door behind Rose and glared at her.

"How am I still alive with your mum?" he seriously wondered.

Rose snorted at that and turned towards the wardrobe. She studied John's outfits for a moment and noticed some TARDIS blue pajamas neatly folded amongst a pile of folded house clothes and smiled. She bent down and picked them before presenting them in front of John. He stared at the clothes before him and looked intently at Rose.

"You said _"date" _back then," he murmured.

"Just because we had an argument, it doesn't mean our date gets cancelled," Rose chided.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how it works with some people," John thought, raising a quizzical brow. "But then again, we're not "some people"," he quipped.

"No we're not," Rose replied. "Now get changed before my mum comes in." And with that, John proceeded to get changed. He started with the boxers laid out for him and Rose smirked. "Boxers. I knew it."

"_Oi!_" John cried out, turning giggled and flumped backwards to lie down on her bed before letting out a winding sigh. Then she craned her neck towards John so she was eye level with his-

"Oh my _God_, John. Put those boxers on!" Rose cried out, slapping her hands on both eyes. As a matter of fact, she scampered out of the room leaving John burst into a fit of laughter, only for it to fade thanks to his broken ribs. He put on his underwear and proceeded to put on a shirt with great effort until Rose suddenly came back with a mischievous look on her face as she produced a red marker pen from behind.

"Rose…?"

He was cut off as she dived at him and began to draw a series of things on his white sling. Rose hummed in approval before finally letting go off his arm. A look of horror crossed John's facial features. John studied it and to his sheer horror, spotted the unmistaken shape of a penis sneakily altered into a donkey signed by Rose followed by neat swirly squiggles and a heart. He looked back at her, mouth gaping but a smile tugging at his lips. Rose pursed her lips trying not to laugh as she ran out of the room before he could do anything. It was a clever move because if he ever stepped out of those bedroom doors, Jackie would have seen his sling…


	13. A Rare Form of Fear

**Note: **WOOHOO! I'm a happy Whovian! GCSE results turned out _very _well and I've just enrolled in the school I wanted to study for my A Levels. YAY, more studying! ... *Shrudders*

On a different note, I just found out my friend met David Tennant in Disneyland this month. Disneyland. Disneyland... *Cries out of jealousy*

* * *

Chapter 13 - A Rare Form of Fear

Rose was right. John _did _leave the apartment the next day despite his tediously sustained injuries. It was lucky for her she managed to persuade him to drive him to work instead of taking the motorbike otherwise her mum would have slapped him back into the Time Vortex…

John sauntered into the kitchen already in his suit attire. Apart from the fact that his right arm -that was still in a brand new white sling- was under his jacket, he was fully clothed. For a trip out… Frankly Rose wasn't surprised at how he managed to put on his clothes without her help.

"Looks like you're not gonna be staying here to heal," she murmured, munching on a piece of toast, wary of the crumbs falling onto her clothes. John scoffed.

"Well, good morning to you, too!" he teased, watching her eat at the dining table. "Besides, I'm healing as I'm on the go," he said in a matter of fact tone and pointing at his now healed and plaster-less forehead. "See? No plaster," he grinned before picking a carton of milk from the fridge with his free hand and nudged the fridge door to close with his head. Then he shuffled back to get the box of cereals, clearly with a lot of effort using one hand. The sight made Rose laugh and John looked up in confusion. "What?" he wailed, clearly unaware.

"If you want my help, just say so," Rose began, rounding in on John and giving him a spoon. He huffed and looked back at her with the face of a child who thinks they could do anything without the help of anyone before pouring milk into a bowl of _Coco Pops _and heading towards the dining table where he plopped onto a chair.

They let a long round of silence envelope them and John took that as an opportunity to start at his breakfast without much distraction. Rose glanced at the part Time Lord in concern for a brief moment and sighed, taking a sip of tea. Had she known she'd be living with this man she could have at least been a little more prepared. She had lost him – twice to be precise, and the alternative she received was dangerously close to being lost… Perhaps it was an indication that this was really not meant to be. Or rather she was doing something wrong. Had John been the victim this whole time?

Right on cue, John's voice pierced Rose's thought bubble as he pointed towards the front door. "I'm just going out for a bit of fresh air before we head to Torchwood." Rose blinked, trying to regain focus and noticed he had already finished his breakfast.

"Oh, sure," she answered in a rushed manner, taking the last bites of her toast. "I'll be ready soon. I just need to put on my make up." John sighed at that. "What?"

"Have I ever told you," he began, "you look prettier without make up?" John watched in bemusement as Rose's cheeks turned red. That was the first complement she heard from him in a while. Not since the outing to Victorian Cardiff. Perhaps John being part human and very open had its perks after all. "You're blushing," he said, a look of confusion flashing on his face. "Was I rude?" he asked, genuinely muddled. Rose rolled her eyes. So much for being romantic…

"No," she breathed, getting up from the table and placing her plate in the sink. "I'll be thirty minutes, so you can go round the neighbourhood for a bit." John slowly nodded before feeling a tingly sensation in his chest. His ribs were fast healing thanks to the magic of his Time Lord genes, but that didn't compensate for how much pain he would feel. As John headed out of the apartment, he fumbled around in his pockets and hummed as he pulled out a box of his special painkillers along with a bottle of water. He grinned, feeling very charmed to have bigger on the inside pockets and proceeded to place two white tablets on his tongue before taking a swig of water, and sauntering out of the apartment. John peered around the hallway and waited until no one was around and only the sound of the beating rain outside was audible. When he was satisfied, he pulled out a small piece of paper which Jack had scribbled the name of a well known restaurant in central London along with the restaurant phone number at the bottom a couple of days ago. It felt like the perfect thing to do. But why did John feel like it wasn't? He'd never been the best at picking places to eat, let alone finding somewhere _"nice" _to visit whilst he had the TARDIS. Frankly, the terms, _"safe destinations" _was slowly creeping out of his dictionary… Maybe for once, Jack had the right idea… Instantly, John pulled out his mobile phone and dialled the number. After three rings, the person on the other end received the call and John perked up.

"Hi!" he greeted into the phone. "I'd like to make a reservation for two please…"

**…**

**[Three days ago…]**

Ollie Carter grunted as he attempted to sit up on his bed. Relief washed over him as Adam Mitchell walked back into his bedroom with a new look of seriousness on his face.

"Before I help you with any of this," Ollie began, staring hard into Adam's eyes. "Tell me one good reason _why_ I should help you." Adam looked up in thought before looking back at Ollie.

"You want to know," he simply replied. "Nothing can suppress a human's curiosity. You want to know out of all the people out there, you wanted to specifically know why it was Grace. Perhaps if you could find out the identity of the killer, you'd find the truth. Am I right?" Ollie paused, defeated. Instead of responding to Adam's little speech, he picked himself up with a considerable amount of effort and walked out of his bedroom. Adam proceeded to follow him and they walked down the flight of stairs, past the numerous hanging framed pictures of Ollie and Grace in various places. They certainly loved travelling, Adam thought as he noticed a few pictures taken in a number of foreign countries. The two men headed into the living room and stopped where family photos lined on top of the fireplace. Ollie took the framed picture of himself and Grace cuddled up together (the picture Adam saw previously) and began fiddling with the back of the frame, prying the edges with his fingers. Adam watched in curiosity as Ollie took apart the frame of what seemed to be the most precious memory of his long lost lever until he revealed the bottom of the actual photograph. A small crumpled piece of paper and a small silver key fell out from inside the frame and Ollie bent down to pick it up.

"Right after Grace's disappearance, this was put inside my letterbox." Ollie handed the paper to Adam and the MI5 agent studied it with interest.

"Why didn't you show this to the police before they handed the case over to Torchwood?" Adam wondered. Ollie fell silent again, his eyes showing grief.

"You think I'd be in the mood to do anything after losing what I thought I'd live for?" he asked seriously, earning an apologetic smile from Adam.

"I'm sorry," he lamely answered, then taking a look at the paper to try and move away from the sorrow.

"It looks pretty crazy and I think it was just a bunch of teenagers being pricks," Ollie muttered, pointing at the paper.

"Well, anything - evidence or not, would have to do at the kind of position I'm finding myself in…" Adam murmured. He proceeded to read the writing inscribed on it.

_Want to save your girlfriend?_

_The British Library _

_Cloakroom, Locker 48_

_You have 3 days._

The MI5 agent stared at the piece of paper and back at Ollie. "Is that it? A key and a piece of paper?" he asked, trying to hide his frustration.

"Don't be crazy," Ollie snapped. "I'm sorry, but this is all I've got to help with the case. You either take it or leave." Feeling rather disappointed, Adam took out transparent evidence bags from his pockets and placed the two items into separate bags, then sealing them. He composed himself and cleared his throat.

"Like I said: Anything would have to do," he huffed, stuffing his hands into his coat pockets. "Thank you, Mr. Carter. I know my way out from here."

"Wait, you're not staying to tell me what's going on?" Ollie demanded, taking a step towards Adam. The MI5 agent shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but we really don't know what's going on. You've just provided me the first piece of evidence regarding the case and I don't even know if it's even related to the investigation. Who knows? It could just be a joke some kids played on you – a cruel one, if I may point out." Defeated again, Ollie just nodded his head as Adam made his way to the front door to face the rain yet again. "But I promise we'll keep in touch with you." The MI5 agent felt a new wave of hope, feeling the evidence in his pocket. Chances are the killer just sent Ollie a message…

**…**

"You're supposed to be resting," Pete sighed as John entered the Torchwood lobby.

"Yeah, that's what I've been tellin' him," Rose murmured as she followed behind John. The part Time Lord simply rolled his eyes.

"I guess I'm just too excited to meet my AT crew," he answered sarcastically – as much as he loved them.

"I can't keep you in one place, can I?" Rose muttered, clinging onto his free arm in an attempt to anchor him down.

"Or maybe you just want to start on the sonic screwdriver prototypes because you heard there was a shipment of items recorded to your department?" Pete asked as John innocently rocked on his heels.

"No…" Pete rolled his eyes.

"There really _is _no stopping you," Rose breathed, before jolting at the sudden noise of her pager. She gave the two men a look of apology before reading the device and sighing. "Gwen's called in sick and Tosh is there doing most of the work. I should head on," she said in a hurry, releasing her grip from John. "I'll see you at lunch." John watched Rose Tyler hurry off into the locker rooms before coming back out clutching piles of paper work.

"Looks like you two made up then?" Pete asked in a way that was not as awkward.

"I… think so," John trailed off, scratching the back of his head. Then he let out a winding sigh and resorted to the question that had been lurking in his mind. "Pete, how did you and Jackie settle together?" At once, the father gave a warm smile.

"A diner table, some red table cloths, two candle lights, a posh set of cutlery, assorted cheeses, and my best chef."

"Really?"

Pete burst into a hearty laugh. "Sorry, John. Sadly it isn't as simple as that," he replied with a smirk. "You're gonna have cope with a few arguments, awkwardness and an awful lot of sofa sleeping until Rose can eventually accept it all. It's what I had to go through seeing as Rose is in the position I was. Well, all that except the sofa sleeping," he added. "Rose will eventually accept what's happening, just like what I had to do. Because it was then I realised I was being so stupid when I could finally spend another chance being happy." John nodded in understanding and smiled in gratitude.

"Blimey, you humans are really understanding," John mused, grinning. He felt a new form of hope in him and composed himself. "Now I have something good to think about over work," he beamed, heading towards the locker room.

"I can't talk you out of work, can I?" Pete quipped with a forced smile as he watched John grow smaller and smaller in the distance.

"Chances of changing my mind are the same as me reincarnating as an olive," he teased, bounding into the locker room with energy. John pulled out his locker key and shoved it into his locker, twisting it and taking out his white lab coat with his free hand. What he didn't notice was a brown box wrapped in string that fell out of his locker as he pulled out the rest of his belongings. John stared at the parcel in surprise and bent down, picking up the box and shaking it, eyes narrowing. He glanced around the room, finding some sort of indication as to who might hand sent him this parcel. But there was no one. Curiosity got the better of him and he found himself single-handedly opening the box with a bit of effort. Residing in the parcel was a sleek black cuboid of some sort – something John had the faintest idea what it was. He picked up the object and studied it, turning it around. But it was just a plain black cube...

Until the cube started beeping and numbers appeared and illuminated on one side of the device – numbers that were counting down as the beeping progressed in speed…

10…

9…

8…

A bomb...

7…

6…

Instantly, John threw the black cube away from him into the depths of the locker room as he bolted towards the exit. But of course the universe wasn't having it. John lost his footing and fell on the floor. Pain shot throughout his right side and he moaned, writhing in agony at the burning sensation he was beginning to feel in his lungs. But he couldn't just stop there…

5…

He glanced at the black cube, thinking faster than ever. But it was too late…

4…

Upon instinct, John curled in on himself in protection.

3…

2…

1…

…

That blissful silence enveloped John - something he was sure that wasn't supposed to happen… John eased his eyes open and stole the chance to look at the black cube on the floor by his head. Still in tact. A dud? It stopped beeping and he frowned, daring to pick it up before it hissed and smoke rose from its sides. John dropped it in shock and watched as the top of the cube opened. He brought his head over the cube and peered into it, finding a little piece of paper inside. John took out the paper and examined it, before rushing towards the parcel and rummaging through the packaging, then crawling around to find some sort of clue as to who sent him this unexpected "gift" in case anything might have fallen to the floor. This had to be some sort of practical joke… His search sadly resulted in failure, but he proceeded to examine the crumpled paper. Someone had written on it.

_Late house warming gift._

_You enjoying this new universe?_

_T.M_

For a brief moment, John stared at the note, all excitement and glee washed away from him in an instant as seriousness took over.

_T.M_

Where had he seen those two letters?

"Now what is a handsome man doing on the floor?" The unmistakable American voice pierced through John's thoughts and made him jerk up. He watched as Jack Harkness sauntered into the locker room with that charismatic grin, shaking his wet hair dry of the rain. This time he wore his usual attire instead of Torchwood issue black Kevlar: grey military overcoat, shirt grey pressed trousers, suspenders and brown boots. "Oh, don't tell me. This is the part where I come behind you and-"

"Stop it," John snapped, brushing his suit with his free hand and picking himself up with great effort thanks to his injuries. He carefully readjusted his sling without too much movement and picked up the black cube that was still on the floor. Jack watched in curiosity as John began to tidy up what mess he seemed to have made on the floor.

"What's that?" Jack wondered, pointing at the black cube in John's hand.

"Giant black dice," he replied flippantly, shoving the cube in his pocket. Fobbing off the retort, Jack noticed the part Time Lord's uneasy expression and took a step forward, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay?" he simply asked, staring at John's features. John however, let out a winding sigh and smiled. But it wasn't a smile that reached his eyes…

"Yeah. It's just the painkillers wearing away again," he muttered, taking his final items from his locker in a hurried fashion. "I'll be fine." Jack just stared at John for a moment before forcing a smile to try lightening up the mood.

"I heard you slipped on dog saliva," he mused, trying to keep a straight face. John felt his cheeks warming.

"Blimey, what has Rose told you?" he exclaimed.

"Word gets around quickly in Torchwood," he said with a hint of an apologetic smile. John shut his locker and composed himself, attaching his ID onto his trouser pocket.

"Any luck on Case 132?" he asked, trying to change to topic. This seemed to catch Jack off guard when he sighed and pulled out a file he was initially holding and passed it onto John. He took the red folder and browsed through the various papers with efficiency.

"Ever since you brought to light your theory about the behaviour of the murders, we've filtered possible victims," Jack answered, shoving his hands in his pockets and leaning against a tower of lockers.

"That's good, isn't it?" John wondered, taking in Jack's tired tone.

"It is," Jack murmured. Then he rubbed the back of his neck. "But determining couples within a city with a population of just over eight million –which is London, by the way- proves to be one heck of a task. Even with our advanced computer systems and databases, it certainly crunches time."

"Well, at least we're progressing," John persisted, closing the file and handing it back to Jack.

"John, you're participation in this investigation has certainly helped a _lot_, but have you seen how many couples there are in London? We could hardly determine who's the next victim…" Then his voice dropped an octave lower. "The next murder happens in roughly two weeks."

"Then we'll have to work even harder," John supposed, shrugging his shoulders. "Besides, two weeks is just enough time to solve this," he smirked. "Heck, I could solve it in less than that amount of time."

"Well, why didn't you solve it earlier?" Jack exclaimed. John grunted. He began walking towards the doors, not looking back at Jack and spoke the words with a tone of utter seriousness.

"Trust me, I'll get to the bottom of this."

**…**

Ianto Jones stood outside Canary Wharf looking rather feeble under the pouring rain with a black umbrella and a coffee. He brought up his jacket collar to shield his face from the cold and began shuffling around on the spot. To his relief, he saw Adam Mitchell looming up in the distance, walking towards him. They exchanged glances before nodding and walking into the Torchwood building in silence. It wasn't until they approached the lobby Adam began to speak.

"Are you sure about this?" the MI5 agent hesitantly asked, taking off his drenched coat. Ianto heaved a sigh and stared back at him.

"Yes."

The two walked towards the locker room where they stumbled upon Jack Harkness sitting on a bench who seemed to be engrossed in a few "grown up" magazines with a stupid grin plastered on his face. He looked up at the unexpected arrival and closed the magazine, crossing the space between Ianto and Adam with a flirtatious smile.

"That coffee for me?" Jack asked, pointing at the cup in Ianto's hand.

"No, and before you ask," Ianto began, pointing his head at Adam. "You're not having him." Jack gave a theatrical sigh, but nonetheless, smiled. He held out a hand and began that infamous introduction. "General Jack Harkness. And _who _are _you_?" Ianto rolled his eyes, but Adam seemed to go along with it.

"Adam. Adam Mitchell," he replied with a smile and shaking Jack's hand. "And if you're General Jack Harkness, you must be in charge of the Case 132 investigation, right?" Jack raised a brow as they let go.

"Yes, yes I am," he replied.

"He works with MI5," Ianto chipped in, noticing Jack's narrowed eyes. "I was just wondering if you'd let him co operate since you're both in investigating the same case." To both Ianto and Adam's surprise, Jack shook his head petulantly.

"No can do. Not that I wanna offend you, Adam –no matter how beautiful you look-, but I don't like help from _"overseas"_." He emphasized the noun like it really in fact offended him. "Torchwood works alone."

"Jack, what happened to _"I'd do anything to get this case done"_?" Ianto muttered.

"I can't just let other people helping in," Jack insisted. "The police handed the case over to us. This is only Torchwood's business now."

"Yeah, like that's been working smoothly. We could solve this with the help of others, not just Torchwood," Ianto objected.

"I don't mean to sound rude," Jack began. "But since when did you start opening up to this investigation? You're a bit late to help…" Ianto glared at Jack.

"Some people just can't bear the dead and they keep it to themselves," he growled. "It's not like _you _would know." This time, it was Jack's turn to frown at Ianto. It was then Adam nervously scampered between them.

"Oh, it's totally fine if you don't need me," the MI5 agent babbled.

"Oh, let's not bring our personal lives in this," Jack snarled. His fists were clenched, ready to hit something. Or someone…

"Sometimes I wonder if you even _have _a life," Ianto retorted. "What with you being cooped up in your office drinking caffeine every day."

"Really, you two…" Adam sighed.

"Do you have any idea of the trouble I'm going through just to solve this case? Fine, why don't _you _solve this by yourself?" he exclaimed flippantly, throwing his hands in the air.

Ianto gritted his teeth. "No." Jack bitterly laughed at that.

"I knew it," he breathed, staring at Ianto.

"No, I'm not going to help you," Ianto declared to Jack's surprise. "If no one's helping Adam, then I'll do it myself."

What?" Adam boggled, clearly thrown off guard by Ianto's declaration. Jack however, laughed again.

"I won't let you," the American intercepted. "You still work for Torchwood. You're not helping _him_," he said slowly, pointing at Adam.

"Then I quit," Ianto snapped. "I don't work for Torchwood now, so I work with whoever I like."

Jack stared at him, mouth open and stunned. He watched as Ianto beckoned Adam to leave the locker room.

**…**

John rushed into the AT department and straight for Ted Collins, oblivious of the other three AT colleagues who greeted him. He held out the piece of paper he found early that morning after the pelava he nearly caused and shoved it into his colleague's hands.

"I want you to search the Torchwood databases regarding the initials _"T.M"_," he muttered. Ted looked surprised at the sudden seriousness and fright in his tone. This was _not _John…

"Then what's the paper for?" he wondered, staring at the paper in his hands.

"Do what you have to with it," John answered. "Check for DNA prints, work out the type of ink used to write the message on that paper, find out what type of paper was used, just _anything_." Ted noticed John's uneasiness and uneven breathing. He was clutching his side like his life depended on it, but pretended not to take notice of it and gave a smile of reassurance instead. He dared not to ask anymore in case John snapped. Then the part Time Lord leaned closer to Ted, so close he could feel John's breathing as his voice became small.

"Tell this to no one. Not even Pete."

"… I'll get to it straight away."

John's hard exterior suddenly faded and he smiled in deep gratitude. "Thank you." He watched as Ted flitted out of the department room with a new form of energy. He was so desperate he couldn't even do this himself. If he did, other people will get suspicious. Ted was more discrete…

He suddenly experienced a rare form of fear – something he'd never felt in a long while. And that said something. Generally, with being a full Time Lord, something like the situation John found himself in wouldn't affect him, but it certainly hit him like a bomb if you only had one life to live... John still considered himself new to this universe, but already someone was out there scaring him…


	14. Desperation to Remember

**__Note: ***Sees the last update date and pauses in thought* I'm not late, you're all too early. What? C'mon! Okay, so I'm a week late. But I finished Chapter 14! Okay, I haven't written the next chapter. But I have a perfectly good excuse: School. *Shivers*

I've started my A Levels and I can't promise weekly updates, but I _will_ be working on this as best as humanly possible. Heck, can I just thank my librarian for letting me use the school computers for work? Okay, that was just an excuse to write up my fanfiction. The risks I take to storytell...

* * *

Chapter 14 - Desperation to Remember

Jack Harkness stood at the safe zone of the Torchwood firing range, glaring at the paper target in the shape of a figure of a man on the other side of the firing zone through yellow tinted safety glasses. He was alone in the room and hoped it stayed that way for the next hour because he felt a new form of annoyance and impatience flow through him. Without going through any safety protocols of putting on ear protectors or making sure it was even safe to begin, Jack whipped out his pistol from his holster and unleashed all six rounds at the target in anger. Then he shoved the gun back into his holster and snatched a Torchwood issue gun from the table beside him and proceeded to recklessly shoot ten more rounds at the now abused paper target whilst muttering a string of insults under his breath. Out of frustration, he hurled the gun in front of him and before he knew it, he was picking up a sub machine gun and flicking off the safety catch all in one swift movement…

"Jack, what the _hell _are you doin'?!"

Jack almost jumped one meter into the air from the sudden voice that cracked his thoughts. His head jerked towards the door where a blonde woman was rushing towards him, clearly shocked as he could tell from her wide eyes. "Rose!" yelped yelped, loosening his grip around the gun and almost dropping it. "What are you doing here?"

"Easter egg hunting," Rose retorted, rolling her eyes. She suddenly noticed the various guns of different sizes laid on a table next to Jack and frowned.

"It's not what you think," Jack insisted, noticing her suspicion. She raised a brow and after a long pause, he heaved a sigh and scratched the back of his neck. "I took 'em from the weapons storage."

"Jack, if anyone saw this, you'd have your Torchwood license removed for takin' standard issue weapons without permission!" Rose hissed, glancing around to make sure no one was lurking around.

"You don't need to worry about me," he muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets and scowling. Rose did a double take on the table filled with guns ranging from a small pistol and large machine guns you'd see from a James Bond movie to the comical bazooka.

"Please don't tell me you were goin' to shoot that thing," Rose demanded, pointing her finger at the largest weapon on the table. Jack let out a bitter laugh and let his eyes settled on Rose's.

"I'd blow up Canary Wharf if I had to, Rose."

"What?" Rose stared wide-eyed.

"This job," Jack began, staring aimlessly at the paper target with a number of holes drilled straight through. He noticed all the bullets he shot never missed the target. "Look what it's doing to me."

"Jack, it's just the stress from this investigation," Rose reasoned, pulling at his sleeve. "Please, let's tidy this up and leave and pretend nothing has just happened. I won't tell my dad, I promise," she added desperately. But Jack didn't move an inch. He stared at the floor, not wanting to meet her gaze as guilt flooded him.

"I've lost so much," he murmured. "I've just lost Ianto, I thought I lost you when you decided to try out the Dimensional Canon. I knew it was a bad idea."

"Jack, I'm still here," Rose pressed on, not entirely sure what Jack's point really was. "The project was a success. Why were you so against the Dimension Canont? Even _now _you're talkin' as if you're still against it." Jack was silent as he stared back at Rose. His gaze never faltered and he looked distant.

"Oh, I wish I could tell you," he breathed, eventually breaking eye contact and slowly shaking his head. "If I have to be honest, Torchwood's the only thing I've got left. Heck, you guys are like family to me. Ever since Torchwood found me, you've offered me a home and another reason to continue living here. But I'm starting to wonder if it's really just one of those things that separates you from the world." There was a moment's pause. Jack sighed in defeat as he walked towards a nearby chair at the end of the room and slumped on it. He removed his safety glasses in a lazy manner and tossed them aside.

"I don't understand," Rose finally said; even after a long moment to try figure out Jack's point.

"It doesn't matter," he grated, picking himself up from the chair and rushing out, leaving Rose alone in the room. "Just forget what I said."

**…**

John was in the men's toilets, studying himself in the mirror. He noticed the scar on his forehead attained from his previous accident and sighed. "Blimey…" he breathed, now one-handedly unbuttoning his shirt to reveal several bruises around the right side of his abdomen. He poked a purplish patch and winced, feeling stupid for thinking of playing with his wounds. Give it about a week the most and all his ribs should fully heal. He dared to take his right arm off his sling and re do his shirt, but winced and stopped the moment he even moved his shoulder. Give that three more days and he'll probably be out of that sling… For a moment, John continued to stare at his reflection: His rugged and boyish complexion evident and his sticky uppy hair and set jaws.

He looked _exactly _the same as _him_.

There was sadness in his eyes – the kind of sadness he bore for the past couple hundreds of years.

It was loneliness.

John took a sharp intake of breath, but gasped at the pain in his chest. He clenched his fist and scrunched his eyes, resisting the urge to make too much noise. _This _was what set him apart from his former self and now he understood Rose's pain every time she set eyes upon him. He's so _human_, but he's _too much _like _him_. John muttered a string of curses under his breath as he continued to button up his shirt and finally compose himself. After straightening his tie and ruffling up his hair, he cleared his throat before leaving the men's rooms and entering the lobby where various Torchwood operatives greeted him. He suddenly felt a cold shiver down his spine the moment he remembered the bomb in his locker that morning. Right about now, his trust in humanity was slowly falling – anyone was out there to get him and never had he felt more vulnerable. Instantly John rushed towards the direction of the canteen.

**…**

"Owen, take a look at this," said Toshiko Sato, who was adjusting her glasses on her nose and pointing at the laptop screen she held as she entered the autopsy room all too suddenly.

"Tosh, you're not meant to be in here," Owen began, waving his arms flippantly at a dead body of a red alien on the metal table; one hand already holding a saw as if she never noticed it.

"Something weird is going on here," she began, pointing at a grey box on a map of London. Owen stared incredulously at the Torchwood operative.

"…You're not meant to be in here," the medic murmured under his breath, but nonetheless, propping the saw back on the table and looming up behind Tosh.

"There are reports of some suspicious activity," she replied, clearly oblivious as she stared at her laptop screen.

"Oh…" Owen sighed, a tinge of annoyance and disappointment in his tone as he walked back towards the dead alien he had previously been working on for the past week. "Yes, haven't had that in a while," he said sarcastically. "You're still not meant to be here."

"Well, there's a man who's apparently taking in various women according to a few witness reports. They haven't been seen walking out of his place."

That seemed to grab the medic's attention. "You think…" he trailed off. Then he shook his head. "No, that's too early to think that."

"Possible suspect of Case 132?" Tosh chipped in, pausing in thought. Owen uneasily hummed, mentally reasoning out with himself.

"I don't think we should jump to conclusions," he eventually said, taking out a scalpel and holding it out to the light.

"Owen, we could do with _anything_ right about now," Tosh insisted, proceeding to type away. "And it's not like you hear of these kind of things all the time in London." Owen placed the scalpel back down onto the metal tray.

"We should wait for Jack," he finally said. Tosh smiled and continued to browse through various records on her laptop.

"And Gwen," she added, taking off her glasses. "She's not at work today, but I can give her a call." Owen sighed at that.

"Ill again?" he seriously wondered.

"Gwen would say she's got scurvy and she'll be let off from wor."

"Baby problems?" Owen suggested.

"Yup."

He slowly and silently nodded before turning his attention back to his autopsy. "Where is this man operating?" he finally asked as Tosh hummed and brought the map back up onto her screen.

"He owns a place on top of Smithfield Butchers in East London."

"Oh great," Owen sighed with lacking enthusiasm. "Butchers…"

**…**

Rose watched as John entered the Torchwood canteen looking better than she had thought considering what he was going through. She scoffed a few chips before the part Time Lord approached her and eyed the chicken and mayo sandwiches on a plate, a bottle of sparkling water and a banana on a tray beside her meal. Rose smiled and beckoned him to sit down next to her. John obliged and did what he was told; sitting down next to Rose as he stared down at his meal and then back at her.

"What?" Rose asked over a mouthful of chips. John was silent, suddenly remembering the thoughts running through his mind back in the bathroom. He stared blankly, as if looking right through Rose with deep brown eyes. Suddenly he looked back down at his food and cracked a massive grin and took a sandwich with his free hand, munching heartily on it.

"You got what I like," he answered over a mouthful of sandwich. "Brownie points for the almost ripe banana and sparkling water." Rose laughed.

"Well, it's not like I never listen to your needs," she chided, taking a gulp of water. She pointed at his food before staring back at him. "Eat."

"Yes, boss," John grinned, giving a mock salute before gobbling up one more sandwich.

"Urgh, I thought you hated salutin'."

"I hate _being saluted at_," John corrected with a smug smile. "Never mentioned saluting people." Rose rolled her eyes as she opened a ketchup sachet and emptied its contents all over her remaining chips. The two remained quiet as they continued to eat their lunch and let the busy atmosphere take over as background noise. When John finished his fourth and final sandwich, he eventually began talking again. "So how was your morning?"

"Oh, pretty hectic," she replied instantly, heaving a sigh.

"You can say _that _again," John drawled, recalling his morning in his mind. Perhaps it was best not to mention the bomb…

"Tosh said Owen needed her to come help him at the autopsy department and she offered me to come with her, but I didn't want to see dead bodies, so I chose to stay behind and do all the work since Gwen isn't here..."

John dazed, suddenly finding himself listening to Rose but letting out what was meant to be processed in his mind escape the other ear. He stared blankly at her, nodding now and then to show some sort of indication he was listening. "Rose, do the letters "T" and "M" mean anything to you?" he suddenly asked.

"No," she replied with a raised brow. "Should I?"

"Oh, no. Not really," John mumbled. "Just a hard crossword clue," he lied, continuing with his food. For the next few minutes, John found himself idly listening to Rose's banters and remarks of her seemingly adventurous morning.

It wasn't until the name _"Jack" _and _"guns" _came about in the soup of jumbled words coming from Rose's mouth did John perk up. "What?" he asked. Rose rolled her eyes at him.

"I said I was on my way to the administrator's office when I found Jack actin' all weird and firin' all these guns like he was takin' out all his anger," she babbled. "You should have seen him, John. I'm pretty sure he was gonna blow up the whole firing range if I didn't top him."

"He's probably just stressed out," John reasoned. "What with all this Case 132 shenanigans…"

"Tha's what I thought," Rose interrupted. "But then he was bangin' on about how he's lost all these people and Torchwood bein' the only thing left for him." John paused in thought.

"Rose, has Jack ever talked about his past?"

Rose thought for a moment before frowning. "Now that you mentioned it, he's never talked about anything. Well, he talks, but doesn't _say _much, if you get what I mean."

"Not even any close people, his wife and kids – which I'm presuming he wouldn't have," John quickly added more for a joke than seriousness. "Not even his family?" he suggested.

"Yeah…" Rose trailed off. "He said somethin' about bein' found and Torchwood welcoming him to the organization, but that was all." John hummed.

"Guess our General Jack Harkness is more than what meets the eye," John supposed, taking a swig of sparkling water.

**…**

Ollie Carter was sat behind a desk as Jack Harkness slowly circled around him. He shifted uncomfortably in the eerie silence, only hearing the noise of Jack's boots making contact to the ground.

"Grace Miller," Jack began, breaking the silence. "She wasn't exactly the type to get herself mixed up with other men, was she?"

"Of course not," Ollie answered back, breaking his nervous exterior. Jack halted, wanting to listen in on what he had to say, "All she cared about was her studies and music. How could you say such a thing?" Jack forced a laugh.

"I just wanted to get it out of you quicker," he replied indignantly, much to Ollie's annoyance. "Perhaps she might have upset someone to get herself kidnapped."

"I told you, she had been working with her studies and trying to earn money for tuition fees," Ollie explained slowly.

"That seems uncommon," said Jack, talking a seat in front of Ollie, "for a student to try pay for her tuition fees all by herself I mean." He narrowed his eyes. "You think she might have earned some extra money by any means necessary?" Seeing where Jack was trying to go, Ollie restrained himself from launching himself at the Torchwood operative. How could he think so low of Grace?! But Jack kept pulling at his strings. "How could you let her go around without watching out for her?"

"If you're so keen to know, she sold my great gan's necklace I got for her to earn some extra cash. You happy now?" Ollie snapped, crossing his arms and slouching even more into his chair.

"Oh…"

Ollie suddenly let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah, _"oh"_," he breathed.

"No, I'm really sorry," the Torchwood agent muttered, scrubbing his face with his hands. A seemingly long silence followed through as Jack quietly mourned. It was then Ollie finally spoke.

"I think it's time you called off my interviewing sessions. It's been over eight sessions and I've just been telling you the same thing again and again. This case," he muttered, staring aimlessly at the empty space beside Jack. "It will never be solved."

**…**

To get his mind off things, John found himself back at the AT Department, sitting by a table with various components and crystals scattered around him in an attempt to map out rough blueprints in his mind.

"So _that _thing," Frank Cooper said, tearing John from thought and pointing at the sonic screwdriver in his hand. "What exactly does it do?"

"Anything," he replied, going back into his trance as he stared at the items laid out in front of him.

"Anything?" the brunette man echoed.

"Yup," John replied, popping the 'p' as he sorted through ideas in his mind.

"Like open doors?"

"Yup."

"Scan things?"

"Yup."

"Cut rope?"

"Yup."

"Heal people?"

"Yup."

"Chop wood?"

"Yup."

"Summon the Holy Grail?"

"Yup."

"Summon a Patronous?"

"Yup." Then a pause. "Wait, I take that back," John muttered, running a hand through his hair, "and the one before that." Then another pause. "And _definitely_ the one before that," he added to Frank's bemusement.

"So it _doesn't _do anything?" Frank finally asked, earning an annoyed expression from John.

"Frank, how about you disassemble that hyperspectral scanner?" John pleaded, pointing at a grey device on another nearby table that frankly resembled a Nintendo _Gameboy_.

"No can do," the burly brunette supposed, walking towards the device. John sighed as he picked up a blue Metebelis Crystal from it's silver plated box and gazed at it. _"We found it in a meteor that crashed in South Africa four years ago" _as Pete claimed not too long ago. John inwardly sighed in doubt. As much as he would like to believe how Torchwood got their hands on such a crystal, his vast knowledge of how they were acquired begged to differ… Honestly, John had a right to be suspicious after what he had seen with Torchwood. Brushing off the pessimistic thoughts, he proceeded to jab a string of numbers onto a calculator as best as possible with his left hand.

His mind suddenly tore to the coming Friday night. John paled at the fact that he genuinely didn't know how to woo a girl and a number of possible situations came to his mind: accidentally spilling wine on Rose, making a rude remark, blowing up the restaurant… Well, _that _escalated quickly, he thought. He glared at his sonic screwdriver in hand, wondering why in Omega's name he spent a quarter of his life trying to build what was essentially a sonic probe when he could have spent it impressing the females… Then a thought struck him and he shot a glance back at Frank who was staring blankly at the _Gameboy_-like device in front of him.

"Frank, are you single?" John suddenly asked. Shocked at the unexpected question, Frank stuttered.

"I-I guess so… I broke up with my girlfriend two days ago in case you were hearing any rumors," he quickly added, nervousness in his tone. Then the next thing John said totally swept Frank by surprise.

"_Perfect!_" the part Time Lord beamed. "Have you ever wondered what it's like to get another girlfriend within less than a week after you break up?"

"No…"

"Nor do I. Let's find out," John replied instantly, beckoning Frank to get off his backside and pushing him out of the AT department.

**...**

The moment Ianto declared his resignation to Jack and stormed out of Canary Wharf, he suddenly felt... Wrong... It was then he felt a hand on his shoulders and he looked up to see Adam's reassuring face.

"It's never too late to turn back," the MI5 agent began, but Ianto shook his head.

"I made my decision. We work together now."

The two friends stood outside under a bus shelter from the pouring rain. Ianto inhaled his cigarette and exhaled a puff of smoke before forcing a smile back at Adam. But Adam looked slightly unsure. "I should warn you this could get pretty tough. Especially for you."

"Anything to get some justice," Ianto supposed, crossing his arms in an attempt to keep warm. Adam watched as Ianto placed his cigarette between his lips.

"Since when did you start smoking?" Adam wondered. Ianto looked back at his best friend as if Adam was missing out the obvious.

"Nearly a year now."

"That's after Lisa..." Adam trailed off, but Ianto immediately cut in with a grave tone.

"The last time I was with Lisa, I told her off for smoking in my apartment," Ianto began. "I'm a man who's desperate to remember..."


	15. World's most Complicated Origami

**Note: ***Sees the last update date and winces* Ah...

Please excuse any grammar stuff, if there _are _any (seeing as my proof reader has died on me). Not literally. I think I must have been delirious when I wrote this. And my creativity has grown silver wings and flown outta the window - I'm pretty sure there should be a rule for naming chapters... If there were, the name of this chapter would have changed a _long _time ago and it would be 100 percent more innovative. _Well. _As the old saying goes: LOL.

* * *

Chapter 15 - World's Most Complicated Origami

It didn't take long before John was out of his sling. He was insistent on taking his motorbike to Torchwood seeing as he hadn't been riding the _"Old Girl" _in a while, much to Rose's disagreement. Besides, his ribs were still sore and she couldn't risk any more visits to see that crippled buffoon lying on a hospital bed - _"I won't bend around too much!" _he countered after she pointed out the purple bruises still on his skin whilst trying to dress up that morning. Eventually Rose gave in to his childish bantering and –let's face it- she missed the adrenaline of riding on the back of his bike. It broke John's heart to call his accustomed vehicle that particular name, but it was possibly the next best thing to his TARDIS. Speaking of transcendental time capsules, John realised it had been almost a month since he last saw the progress of his still growing TARDIS and he made it a point to stop by at the lab to take a quick glimpse before continuing his work on the sonic screwdriver prototypes back at the AT department.

And so John found himself gazing at the meter high lump of rock behind a newly built plexiglass chamber that was big enough for the TARDIS to grow at it's full height. He could make out the distinct shape of that six-sided console the rock seemed to be shaped as and John noticed the rock glowed gold from time to time as the beam of energy was concentrated at it. He felt something at the back of his head, a tiny telepathic wave of life bursting with emotion brushing at his mind.

It was the TARDIS.

John gave a genuine smile of joy at the most brilliant sight for sore eyes. Perhaps the AT department could cope without him for another five minutes.

**[Forty-five minutes later…]**

"Where the bloody hell have _you_ been?!" one of John's AT colleagues, Max Morgan, shouted as he ran for the fire extinguisher. John scampered into the AT department clutching a box of various components he scavenged from other labs dotted around Torchwood with that innocent expression painted on his face. He didn't seem to notice Max's panic as he found the nearest fire extinguisher and ran towards a flaming sofa whilst Harry Evans held a bucket of pink liquid, trying to fend off what seemed to be a flamethrower with robotic legs running in circles around the flaming sofa.

"Sorry, Rose lost the keys to my cage," the part Time Lord babbled, suddenly stopping what he was doing as he processed what he just said and he blushed a bright shade of red. "No, sorry. That was a rubbish excuse for my lateness." The two AT colleagues barked in laughter, oblivious of the smell of smoke wafting in the air. John pointed at the burning sofa behind Harry and Max. "You might wanna use that fire extinguisher and tame that Cybernetic flamethrower. I thought I disabled that bugger yesterday!"

"Yeah, I beg to differ," Harry retorted, dashing for the bucket of pink liquid and throwing its contents on the flamethrower. The three men watched as it sizzled and smoked, its lights dimming before it fell to the floor with a _clunk_.

"How does a flamethrower grow legs?" Max seriously wondered out loud as he continued to stare at the device that caused so much commotion.

"It's a Cybertronian," John shrugged. He crouched to take a closer look at the robot and pointed at a marking on the flamethrower's middle section. "Look, it's a bad robot!"

"What, you mean like a Cybertronian from the movie _Transformers_?" Max asked incredulously, his eyebrows raised so high in bemusement.

"You really thought metal _stuff_ will never become sentient?" John asked as if Max were a simpleton to miss out the obvious. John pointed at the dim light emitter faintly glowing at the flamethrower's core.

"That's it's heart," he began, whipping out his sonic screwdriver. It let out a low-pitched hum as he gently pried the small gold cube-shaped object from within the robot life form. It gave a faint blue glow, but it was enough to make John smile at it. He handed it to Max. "I've just preserved the robot's life essence in here. Take it to the vaults and make sure it's kept in a lead reinforced box. It should be able to protect it from any radiation it emits over time." John watched in amusement as Max stared in disbelief and sighed, trudging in the direction of the vaults. In fact, he was a million percent done.

**…**

"General, how's the investigation on Case 132 coming along?" Pete asked as Jack Harkness entered his office. He didn't take a seat in front of his boss' desk and stood up instead. Pete knew he wasn't in the mood for more than just a chat…

"We're making progress," he waved off, shoving his hands in his pockets and keeping a straight, unreadable face. But Pete -being Jack's boss and close friend for almost four years- could tell something was up.

"How much progress?" he tried this time, leaning forward on his desk and twiddling his thumbs. Jack coughed.

"Correction: We're making progress. _Soon_."

"So you _haven't _made any progress?" Pete summarized, sighing as Jack gave a lame nod. He heaved a sigh and suddenly, Jack was suddenly on the seat in front of his desk leaning forward like it the end of time crept up on him.

"I said _"soon"_!" he insisted. "Please, Pete. My team just need time. Actually, we just need your consent." Pete eyed his colleague practically begging over something he had yet to know about…

"What?"

Jack cracked a smile. "We think we may have found a possible suspect. It's not yet confirmed if he could be one. But from witness reports, I reckon we should just take our chances."

"_"Take our chances"_," Pete echoed, leaning back on his chair. He mauled over what Jack had said sighed. "And you want my consent to take him in?" Jack nodded, eyeing his boss carefully.

"I don't want a squadron," Jack assured. "Just let my team handle this."

"It's not that," Pete reasoned. "I'm just concerned for the safety of my team. Especially close friends," he added, earning a smile from Jack.

"We can deal with this. Just trust us."

"This team of yours," Pete began. "Aren't they ever scared once they even _leave _the Torchwood bases knowing of all the possible threats out there? I know you've been through worse _alien _threat compared to this, but I was just curious." Jack shook his head at that and forced a smile.

"Knowing that races even powerful that humans are out their gets me scared, I'll admit that," he replied. He paused. Pete noticed darkness and fear in those deep blue eyes. "But knowing that our _own _kind could do something so _inhuman _makes me crap my pants." Suddenly, Jack stifled a laugh and Pete could only force a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"You make an inspiring leader."

"That's why you made me in charge of the Cardiff base," Jack quipped, grinning.

"Oh, don't go there," Pete shot back, rolling his eyes. "You only got the job vacancy after we discovered the general previously in charge was secretly smuggling Torchwood weapons to alien mafia gangs in Cardiff."

"Well, you chose me out of three more trustworthy people in the team," Jack reasoned and Pete sighed.

"Okay, think whatever you like."

"I thought so," he grinned. "So you give us consent?" Pete took a momentary pause before nodding.

"Just be careful, yeah? I can't have any more deaths…"

"I swear on these," Jack replied, pointing at his groin with that stupid grin. Pete rolled his eyes as he watched Jack nod and walk out of the office before he suddenly called out his name.

"Jack."

The Torchwood agent turned around. "Yeah?"

A seemingly long silence followed through and Pete took that as an opportunity to talk, making sure no one was likely to come into his office uninvited. "So how have things been?"

"… Is this some sorta trick question?" Jack wondered, letting out a nervous laugh.

"No, no!" Pete answered, looking a tad bit hesitant. "It's just that Rose had been telling me about some issues." Jack pursed his lips.

"If it's about the firing range and the weapons, I returned them. And If anything about blowing up Canary Wharf was mentioned, that was a lie," he blurted, shifting uncomfortably on the spot.

"What?!"

Jack gaped at Pete. "Oh, you wanted to talk about something else?"

"Yeah, _this _is something else," Pete retorted. "Blowing up Torchwood?!" In a flash, Jack darted to the door.

"What? That's _absurd_!" he exclaimed in mock shock.

"General Jack Harkness, come here right now or else I will withdraw my consent."

"Sorry, I got hayfever – blocked ears and all. I wasn't able to hear that!"

He was out the door when he heard Pete's voice yet again that was muffled by the door.

**…**

"So you're telling me," Frank Cooper began, trying to process what the hell John had just told him. "You're setting me up on a date with a girl who's brilliant and clingy? What's here name again?"

"Martha Jones," replied a grinning John. "So whad'ya say? Good eh? You broke up with your girlfriend not too long ago and I find the _perfect _one in less than a week later. I'm brilliant!"

"No."

"What?!"

"John, I just don't think I'm ready. Yet," Frank added, scratching the back of his head. John let out a dramatic sigh.

"Oh, you humans are so complicated!" he exclaimed, flinging his arms up in the air. "You're like trying to unfold the world's most complicated origami without ripping the paper!"

"… that's one way of putting it," Frank supposed, finding the analogy more amusing than serious. "Look, I can't thank you enough for trying to cheer me up, but I'm still trying to get over my last relationship."

"I'll give you a pay rise."

"You're kidding me," Frank sighed, frowning back at John. "Besides, what makes you so desperate about getting me a girlfriend?" Suddenly his tone became serious. "You can't just invade in my personal life."

"Oi, what's wrong with a bit of friendly support?" John exclaimed, his inner Donna taking a shine. Fred raised a brow.

"Is this about you and Rose?" he questioned, eyes narrowing. "Are you just helping me out because you're so happy with Rose you don't wanna leave me all alone? Look, I don't need your pity," Fred waved off as he clambered off his stool.

"No, no! Of course not!" John blurted, taking Fred by his sleeve to stop him from moving. Fred turned around with an expression of impatience and John winced from the sudden movement that strained his ribs. "Just… Just give it a go. Please?"

Fred stared hard at John's innocent face and gave in, sighing for what seemed the hundredth time that day. "Okay, but as long as I choose where to take her out." John pursed his lips at that and once again, gave a wry grin. From that, Fred could already tell he had something in plan. "What have you done?" he seriously asked, wondering if he'd rather hear about an explosion rather than something that will lead to his complete embarrassment.

"Oh, would you look at that!" John cried out, whipping out a piece of paper from his extensive pockets and passing it onto Fred. "You're having dinner with Martha at an Italian restaurant called _Zucca _in Bermondsey Street tomorrow evening at 7pm. Blimey, they make some _brilliant _juicy rosy grilled veal chops." Fred couldn't help but stare incredulously at this impossible man. "Oh, and what a coincidence! Me and Rose are eating there at the _exact _day and time. Well, isn't that wizard?"

"… you did that on purpose!" Fred yelled at John who was already scampering out of the room.

"What? Oh, don't be silly," John laughed as he bounded towards the hallway.

**…**

Ianto Jones slumped on his best friend's bed and sipped his cup of coffee. His head perked up the moment he heard a toilet flush in the bathroom and Adam Mitchell appeared out of the doorway wiping his hands on his trousers.

"What's this?" Ianto wondered, picking up the clear sealed evidence bag containing a piece of paper and key from the bedside table.

"That," Adam began, taking the bag from Ianto. "That contains two pieces of evidence I managed to acquire from Ollie Carter earlier on in the week." Ianto frowned.

"How come he's agreed to co operate with you on this investigation? Torchwood wasn't even able to get a lot of details from him," Ianto babbled. Adam shrugged like it was no big deal.

"Sometimes, people in your situation selectively choose who they want to open themselves up to. Am I right?" Ianto silently and slowly nodded in understanding before taking another sip of coffee.

"Yeah, Jack's a bit of a pushover," Ianto murmured. "It's hard to really gain his trust. Especially when no one knows _anything _about him…" Adam nodded before opening the bag and taking out its contents. He held the key in front of Ianto and then took out the paper and read it aloud.

_Want to save your girlfriend?_

_The British Library_

_Cloakroom, Locker 48_

_You have 3 days._

Adam looked back at Ianto expecting some form of response. But he just fell silent and distant, pondering over the possible outcomes as he sat hunched and twiddling his thumbs on the edge of the bed.

"Let's do what it says," Ianto suddenly declared. Surprised, Adam placed the paper back into the bag. "If it's a message from the killer, then we'll follow it. It could probably lead us to a new clue." The MI5 agent smiled.

"I like your thinking," he complemented. "But what if it's some sort of trap? Perhaps the killer was waiting to strike?" Ianto shook his head.

"The killer only kills _women_," Ianto muttered, still looking straight ahead. "And so what if it's a trap? I've got nothing to lose. And so do you," he added, finally looking to meet Adam's gaze. Adam just stared at his friend for a moment before rolling his eyes.

"Yes, perhaps you're right." Ianto stood up, stretching his arms and letting out a yawn before taking his mug of coffee from the bedside table. "Shall we?"

"We've nothing to lose," Adam chided as he went for his coat slung across the dining chair. "Next stop: the _British Library_."

**…**

Jack Harkness whistled as he ambled along the white corridor in a relaxed manner. He wondered if Gwen would be available for their next mission in East London, but ran through the thought again, weighing the possible outcomes in his mind. He puffed up his cheeks upon eventually settling on the idea that she would call in ill when in fact, it was just another excuse to spend time with her baby. Jack couldn't disagree with her. Then he saw a tall man in a blue suit walking out of a lab and smiled. "John! How's it goin'?" John turned around and also smiled back at Jack.

"Jack Harkness!" he beamed, shaking Jack's hand. "Can I just say that you were right about choosing that Italian restaurant for Rose. At first I had my doubts, but I think this is going to turn out better than I thought." Jack nodded.

"Well, you could always invite me along in return for such a great idea," Jack joked. John rolled his eyes.

"Way to spoil the feelings," he murmured.

"Oh, c'mon. It would be fun! Don't worry, I'll be sitting at the table behind yours," he insisted with the stupid grin.

"And strip behind Rose so only I can see? No."

Jack gasped in mock shock. "How do you think so low of me?"

"Experience," John mumbled under his breath before Jack barked a laugh and slapped him rather hard on the back, making him wince.

"Ow, the ribs!" John protested, lightly nudging Jack on the shoulder.

"Oh, don't be such a wuss," Jack chided. "Anyway, I was just kiddin' with ya. Just make sure you have a blast tomorrow with Rose, yeah? She's an amazing woman." John couldn't help but nod and smile.

"Yes. Yes she is."

Then Jack remembered something and pulled out his phone from his pocket, opening up a file and showing John a digital copy of an article. "Have you seen this?" John took the phone from Jack's hands and peered at the screen. He inwardly smiled. The headline _"Are We Safe?" _certainly caught his attention, followed by the strap line _"News to close Case 132 has lead to numerous uncertainties to surface."_ But it was the name in small print underneath that swept him by surprise. "That bloody journalist called Sarah Jane Smith sure knows how to attract unneeded attention. But that's strong article she wrote there."

"Oh, she's brilliant," John breathed, a smile tugging at his lips.

**…**

The black Torchwood issue car drove into the Tyler Mansion driveway and its engines died down to a soft purr as the passenger door flew open and a little hyper blonde boy in his school uniform ran out.

"Sparky!" he cried out, speeding past the maid who already opened the front door to greet the newcomers.

"Bloody hell, Tony! You can't just leave your school bag in the car!" Rose shouted from the car, grabbing the little blue rucksack and clambering out of the car. Sometimes she wondered why she bothered shouting if her brother was already a mile away from her…

"Good evening, Miss Tyler," the maid called out in a strong European accent from the door with a warm smile.

"Good evening, Pam," Rose greeted back and turning around to lock the car as she sauntered towards the front door. "How've things been without me?"

"Oh, it's not much different with Tony now running about," she laughed, forehead wrinkles creasing from raised eyebrows of amusement. "Apparently Jackie bought him a new teddy after he left it on the bus?"

"Yeah, he was up all night in tears," Rose mumbled. "Mum couldn't take him cryin' the house down." The maid stifled a laugh at that remark. Rose shrugged off her white bubble coat and placed it on the sofa as Pam headed towards the kitchen.

"If you need anything to eat, you know who to call," Pam winked as Rose giggled and sat on the sofa, picking up the TV remote and turning the TV on.

It was then she heard a yell in happiness upstairs, followed by shuffling and Tony suddenly sprinted down the stairs with a brown teddy bear in hand. "Rose!" he practically yelled, waving the plush toy in front of her face and blocking her view of _The Simpsons_.

"Oh, mum replaced your teddy?" she wondered offhandedly, tilting her head to get a better view of the TV screen and trying to sound surprised.

"_Sparky_," Tony corrected, frowning. "And mum said she found him looking for me all around London after I left him on the bus." All Rose could do was agree with the childish story and hope her brother won't realise the truth. But what he said next came to a surprise. "But I don't believe mum."

"What? How come?" Rose wondered, tearing her attention from the TV. Surely that story was enough to convince a child at his age…

"He feels all new and different," Tony murmured. "He smells different, too," he summarised after a quick sniff on the tummy.

"And you're just gonna accept this Sparky?" Rose asked, watching her little brother adjust Sparky's makeshift shirt. He shrugged.

"It's not like he's a _different_ teddy bear," Tony replied with emphasis to the _"different"_. "Just because he looks the same, it doesn't mean he'll never be Sparky."

After that moment, Rose took into account what her little brother had said.


	16. Hard Exterior

**Note:** Well, from the looks of it, I'll be updating this every fortnight! Hopefully, it's not too long of a wait... (Blame A Levels and homework - it's their fault!)

And we faced a power cut today, which was probably a traumatising experience, seeing as I've never experienced one in London. The timing couldn't be better when I'm in the middle of some Maths work and the computer suddenly shuts down, along with every single light, charger, TV, radio and blah, blah, blah. Spooky, eh?

* * *

Chapter 16 – Hard Exterior

The white double doors to the Torchwood ward burst open as junior doctor transfers, Martha Jones and the Hughes brothers stormed through, stringing medical orders to the nurses, Sophie and Chloe Reynolds as Rory Williams helped cart in a grey, wrinkly alien on a medical gurney who was apparently crying out in pain.

"Take him to bed thirteen," Martha urged as she dashed to the reception computer. She didn't notice the tall brunette man rushing towards her direction when they both collided into each other. Various alien items fell from the man's arms as he muttered under his breath.

"You could have damaged the Xylok crystals!" he exclaimed, picking up his dropped items.

Martha arched a brow. "Well, you could see I'm in an emergency right now…"

"Yeah, _thanks_ for that," he retorted. Martha stared at the man, mouth open.

"Excuse me?" she asked, affronted. "You're not even supposed to be in the ward."

"Doctor Jones, a little help here _now_!" one of the nurses called out a little further on.

"For your information, I updated your medical systems. You're welcome, by the way," the brunette man snapped as he dashed out of those double doors, clearly in a hurry. Martha huffed in annoyance as she pushed aside those last few minutes and focused on the task at hand. She sat in front of a computer, fingers gliding over the keyboard with ease as she rapidly searched the Torchwood logged alien database.

"I told you to take the a40 route, not the M5," Dylan Hughes muttered to his brother, trying to attach a needle to the alien's arm. "And because of your slow ambulance driving, we don't have much time save this alien's life." Trying to cope with the pressure, Adam Hughes gritted his teeth as he tried to suppress his anger on his older brother.

"I can't just drive any faster through the rush hour without causing or raising any chances of more accidents, Dylan," he grated, taking a syringe from a nurse. "Get a little perspective."

"Shut up!"

"Why don't you two take your little sibling rivalry out of this ward?!" Martha shouted from behind the reception desk as she continued searching. "I won't deal with this whilst someone's life is on the line." The alien began breathing very loudly.

"He's going into cardiac arrest," Rory muttered, quickly placing a mask on the alien's face.

"How the bloody hell do we know this _thing_ can go into cardiac arrest?!" Dylan yelled, pointing a finger at the now paling life form on the hospital bed. "We don't even know its species yet." As if on cue, Martha bolted from her chair with a new form of energy.

"It's species is-"

"Sensorite," Rory interrupted, pointing at the alien. "It's greyish skin and excess hair around the jaw line, deeper eye sockets and indistinguishable mouths; that's gotta be a Sensorite. And for the record, Sensorites _can _go into cardiac arrest," he added with a smug smile that was directed at Dylan. Martha looked at Rory and a smile tugged around her lips.

A new voice suddenly boomed from the back of the ward. "Well done. Looks like someone's been doing their homework."

Everyone turned towards the source of the new voice. A tall, dark brown haired man in a white doctor's white coat edged towards the group. He had that sense of authority.

"Doctor Milligan!" Adam blurted in surprise. "I thought you were in the labs helping John Smith with some research…"

"Well, a doctor can't resist to take a look at his ward after hearing such ruckus in the hallway," the doctor replied in a calm manner. "Now what is that I hear of slow driving?" Adam's cheeks turned pink. Doctor Milligan turned back to Rory. "You're pretty good for a nurse."

"Anything to help save lives," Rory shrugged, internally feeling chuffed.

"And what do you propose we do?" the doctor challenged the male nurse. Everyone suddenly turned quiet, studying Rory's every action. It's not like you'd see a nurse stealing the spotlight everyday - Especially with three junior doctors fighting for a higher position amongst the medical hierarchy. The medical field can be such a battlefield, Rory thought. There was a moment of silence besides the Sensorite's heavy and uneven breathing before Rory's head perked up, that invisible light bulb above his head shining brighter than ever.

"Defibrillators won't be good since the sudden surge of electricity will kill the Sensorites brain due to higher than normal electrical activity in their neural cortex," he muttered.

"We've got less than two minutes before brain damage occurs," Adam reminded.

"Let him think," Doctor Milligan replied with a surprising amount of calmness. The junior doctor shut his mouth as he proceeded to watch the male nurse think.

**…**

Jackie Tyler watched her son run into school amongst a number of pupils with a form of energy she never knew existed after waking him up so early in the morning just to give him a bath. With Pete gone for the night shift that previous night and Rose looking after her brother whilst Jackie had a rare night out with a group of close friends, it had been hell trying to put Tony to sleep. Inwardly, she sighed in relief as she clambered back into a Torchwood issue car where Jake Simmonds sat in the driver's seat raring to go.

"Tony's growing up pretty fast," he mused, turning on the radio as he started the car.

"And he still can't take a bath by 'imself," Jackie sighed, but chuckling all the while. They started moving and a silence ensued as Jake furrowed his brows in concentration, trying to manoeuvre around various cars until they entered the main road. Jackie let herself listen along to _Birdie_'s _"People Help the People" _until he began to speak.

"Jackie, do you ever wonder if the Doctor is happy with all this?" Jackie turned to look at the blonde man. He was one of few people who actually knew the genuine Doctor and if Pete trusted him with his life, Jackie was bound to open up.

"Of course I do, sweetheart," she replied, as if pointing out the obvious. "A part of me just wanted to grab that man by the collar before he even got into the TARDIS and force him to stay here with us, but there was this voice in my head tellin' me to let things go. I guess it was for the good…"

"You think?"

"You met the Doctor, you can tell he can change people's lives," Jackie thought out loud. "He changed my daughter's and look at her: _Defender of the Earth_! It's such a shame he can't be here with us for the rest of our lives, but what about the other universe? What is it without its saviour? I think we're takin' things for granted. We're offered somethin' even better and that's John. Yeah, he's no full Time Lord with no two hearts, but that doesn't mean he's not that same, _stupid_, brilliant bloke who blew up my daughter's job."

"What?"

"Long story," Jackie fobbed off. "The point is, we should think about the fact that the Doctor's doin' this for the right reasons. And if it makes everyone happy, he's sure to be happy." Jake thought about that for a moment in silence, all the while, watching the road. He'd known the Doctor for a fair amount of time, and after spending a few years with Rose and her seemingly non-sensical tales of her travels with the Time Lord in the other universe, it must have been hard for her to accept another man into her life… But Jake couldn't judge John. He's just as brilliant, he thought, and perhaps Rose would eventually settle with him…

"Where would you like me to drop you off?" he finally asked.

"Oh, Torchwood please!" Jackie instantly replied. "I ain't seen Pete for a whole night!"

**…**

"Mum?"

Rose's eyes widened upon the sight of her mother, clearly out of place amongst the groups of black uniformed Torchwood personnel sauntering by. She cracked a giant smile and walked towards her daughter for a hug. "Rose! Oh, you've no idea how thing's have been without you in the mansion…"

"I'm sure you're doin' fine," Rose reassured, smiling.

"Thank God it's Friday," the bickering mother began. "I won't have to go through so much trouble preparing Tony for school for the next two days." Both women burst out laughing as Rose gestured to go into a nearby office since they were blocking a few people's way.

"Tony seems happy with the new teddy bear you got for him." Jackie nodded at that, proud of her idea to replace what seemed to be an eight-year-old's irreplaceable teddy.

"Well, what are mothers for?" Jackie laughed. Rose let out a warm and genuine smile before slumping on a sofa by the side of the office. She let out a winding sigh. "Tired already?" Jackie mused, watching her daughter huff. "Blimey, it's only _mornin'_!"

"Oi, I had Tony bickerin' all night last night," Rose whined and then yawned.

"Well, why didn't you let John help babysit with you?" Jackie reasoned. "You didn't have to go through all that by yourself."

"He was busy at the labs last night…" Jackie looked surprised.

"Really?" she wondered. "I thought I saw him with that handsome brunette down at the lobby."

Rose frowned and then muttered under her breath. "That lying…"

Upon impulse, Jackie had that inner feeling something was up and she closed the gap between her and her daughter and sat on the sofa next to Rose. "Is something wrong? Between you and John?" she quickly added.

There was no escaping her mother's curiosity. Rose heaved a sigh and sat upright before looking back at Jackie. "He's been a little reserved lately," she murmured. "I feel like somethin' happened to him and he's not sayin' anythin'. I don't know if I did somethin' or if he's been put off …" she trailed off, contemplating. "It's like before…" Jackie frowned.

"_"Before"_?"

"Back in the TARDIS when it was just myself and the Doctor, he'd have this look on his face whenever somethin' was botherin' him. It's like after our visit to this space ship and Madame de Pompadour. And he has this hard exterior that's hard to break." Rose fell in a moment of silence before Jackie stared in confusion.

"Madame de _who_?"

"Long story," Rose muttered, shaking her head. "He's probably just stressed out with work," she reasoned with herself. Jackie nodded.

"That sounds reasonable," she replied. "Though, I reckon he should take it easy… Even Pete's tellin' me he's been up and about with this Case 132." Rose slowly nodded in silence, inwardly feeling guilty for not fully realising how much John had been going through since day one. Perhaps she should take it easy on him? She doubted John would want to talk about it given the nature of the situation, but maybe tonight, she could redeem herself on their night out.

**…**

Jack Harkness loaded six bullets into his gun with ease and placed it into its accustomed holster. He looked up at Gwen, Owen and Tosh with a lop-sided smile who were all dressed in black and preparing their weapons.

"Just like Cardiff," he chuckled, bringing some light heartedness to the atmosphere. The other three were compelled to agree and Jack sensed some forced laughter, too. He couldn't blame them. No matter what his team had gone through, everyone was still deeply scared to the bone before a mission no matter if they seem cool about it. Tosh glanced at around doing ahead count before frowning.

"John Smith's helping in this investigation, am I right?" she began. "Shouldn't he be on this mission with us?"

"He said he didn't want to be involved in any of this," Jack replied with a tone that had a tinge of annoyance in it. "Something about refusing to use guns…"

"Oh, he's the pacifist type," Owen murmured with disinterest, zipping up his black leather jacket and peering at his watch. "Great."

"From what I've heard, John's been making a lot of contributions towards the case, so the least you can do is to allow him off just this once, don't you think?" Gwen declared, studying Owen face. In turn, he raised both hands in surrender. Gwen had the feeling he didn't want to engage in any more bickering.

"Any reports on that suspect?" Jack asked, looking at Tosh with an expectant gaze. She didn't cease to fail him and she took out a tablet, showing him an extract of text from the databases. She suddenly raised a brow at the device.

"John's been tinkering with the Torchwood database, hasn't he?"

"Leave him be," Jack chuckled. "He won't stop until he's satisfied that the Torchwood system are fully centralised." Tosh slowly nodded before proceeding back to business.

"He owns a butchers service in East London, but has link to a restaurant in central London. He sends over his produces weekly and today happens to be that day. From the restaurant records, they receive shipment at 8pm."

"Reckon we could ambush our suspect at that moment in time?" Jack wondered. Tosh was hesitant, but nodded.

"If we don't attract too much attention, it should be fine," she replied.

"What, we can't even notify the restaurant owners that a possible serial killer could be delivering meat to their doorstep and we're going there to stop them?" Gwen asked incredulously.

"You're right…" Jack trailed off, frowning.

"Why don't we just make up a decoy story in the meantime," Owen chipped in. "We'll work as undercover food inspectors or something and you could explain the delay in shipment. We don't exactly have to tell them the truth. Yet," he quickly added. The rest of the team exchanged glances before nodding to one another and looking back at Owen. "What?"

**…**

Fred leaned on the table, watching as John fiddled with various bits of electronics. "There's a real reason behind tonight, isn't there?" he asked slowly, studying John's movements. The part Time Lord tensed a bit before letting out a winding sigh.

"I can't just lie to you," he murmured, dropping all this tools and turning around to look straight at Fred. "And I think it's about time I asked you something." Nodding, Fred gestured for John to continue. "Fred, I was just setting you up on a date with me and Rose so you could indicate if I'm doing anything wrong tonight."

"…" Fred stared at John in disbelief, but couldn't help give a smile at the part Time Lord's needs. "Why couldn't you just tell me you needed dating advice in the first place? I'm always here to help."

"Well, it was a good idea to be discrete," John insisted with a stubborn expression on his face. "It _was _a good idea, I reckon."

"Yeah, and now I'm forced to have dinner with a woman I've never met before," Fred mildly put in, only for John to wince.

"Sorry…" Fred shook his head at that and was still smiling.

"It's all cool," he replied. "Besides, I might like this Martha Jones."

"Oh, you _will_!" John beamed. "She's brilliant. You have my word." Then he looked up and smiled at a new sight. "Speaking of brilliant…"

"Oh, stop it," Rose chided, rolling her eyes as she entered the AT lab. Her grin, however, told another story.

"Aren't you supposed to be working?" John teased. If he could, Fred would have walked out, but being caged in John's gaze got him in a bit of a pickle… Instead, he just sat there feeling slightly awkward.

"A woman can have a quick break," she replied. "Tosh can look after herself before the mission." John smirked.

"I've got five AT colleagues who can't be left on their own for five minutes with a toaster. Wanna swap?"

"Oi!" Fred interrupted.

"I was just joking!" John exclaimed in mock shock, only to instantly shake his head the moment Fred turned his back on John. Rose stifled a giggle before clearing her throat.

"Yeah, nice try. I was just wondering where you wanna meet after work."

"The lobby should be fine," he replied, finding himself fiddling with a nearby stray piece of wire. Then a silence ensued before Rose started to talk.

"So how's work on the investigation? I don't really see you do much work on that besides your techy life and that odd visit to the medical facilities to help with that doctor."

"That doesn't mean I'm not doing any work!" John insisted. He sighed. "Oh, Rose Tyler, you sound just like my mum... Except she has a more higher pitched voice," he added. "Sorry, that was unnecessary."

"Really?" she asked incredulously.

"I'm still here," Fred murmured under his breath as the two engaged in a bicker.

**…**

Adam Mitchell paid the cab driver as Ianto fumbled with his large umbrella. It wasn't much of a surprise London was faced with torrential downpour, but it certainly didn't stop the two best friends from meddling about.

"Sometimes London could do with just a few days of sunshine," Ianto mumbled after putting up the umbrella. Adam waved the cab driver off and took shelter under the umbrella. He gazed around and hummed.

"Actually, I'm one who likes the rain." Surprised, Ianto looked back at Adam.

"Oh…"

"It feels refreshing," Adam shrugged. "Gives this sense of mystery; it's peaceful, yet natural."

"That's a rare opinion," Ianto supposed.

"Shall we?" Both men exchanged glances and nodded.

They walked along the main road, shuffling past various crowds of tourists and trying not to get ran over as they crossed busy streets. As they edged nearer and nearer, a giant, modern and angular structure loomed ahead. Ianto gazed at the sight in awe. "Never really thought libraries could be _this _big," he thought out loud. Adam chuckled at the remark.

"Oh you should visit the Library of Congress in Washington D.C," Adam answered back. "_Blimey_, I could shout my name in that place and the echoes would go on for five minutes."

"I'll try that next time I visit," Ianto laughed. They entered the building where he shook his umbrella dry of the rain before proceeding towards the grand lobby. The architecture intrigued the Welsh man and he found himself struggling to take his eyes off his surroundings.

"Remember, we're not here for the books," Adam reminded, tearing Ianto out of thought. He pulled out the clear sealed bag that had a key inside from his jacket pocket. "We just need to find the locker stated in that note. I know they have locker facilities, but it's pretty large and locating it will take a bit of time." Ianto nodded at that before asking.

"Does it ever bother you that we're literally on the trail towards our killer whilst Torchwood is stuck? Two people are solving this case against a whole organisation! Whatever you did to get that vital piece of evidence…" he pointed at the sealed bag. "I just want to see Jack's face when he sees we've solved this case." Adam smiled at that and nudged his friend's shoulder.

"That's the spirit."


End file.
